A new perspective on optoelectric conversion in conjugated polymers

Photoexcitation of a neutral soliton will create a polaron and a charged soliton. According to a tight-binding model and a nonadiabatic method, we investigate the dynamical process of these two photogenerated charge carriers in an external electric field. It is found that the polaron and the soliton can pass through each other, which excludes the possibility of carrier recombination that usually occurs in existing organic solar cells. The results indicate a more efficient way to realize the optoelectric conversion by photoexciting polymer materials with soliton defects. On the other hand, it is found that solitons take on greater stability than polarons during collision.