Publication date: 15th December 2025
Although organic solar cells (OSCs) have surpassed 20% power conversion efficiency, a persistent trade-off between open-circuit voltage (VOC) and fill factor (FF) prevents them from closing the gap with inorganic technologies. Here, we systematically investigate this trade-off across a wide range of devices and identify an FF limit arising from field-dependent free charge generation. This limit becomes more severe as voltage losses get minimised, thus imposing a VOC-FF compromise. To quantitatively describe this limit, we combine drift-diffusion simulations with an analytical model for field-dependent charge generation, revealing that the underlying cause is the field-sensitive charge transfer process between excitons and charge-transfer states. Guided by this physics-based model, we highlight that increasing the exciton lifetime is a practical and effective strategy to mitigate the FF limit. By applying our approach, we demonstrate a ternary OSC combining a high FF of 81% with a power conversion efficiency of over 20%, showcasing a clear path to overcoming this fundamental challenge.
