Patent ID: 8288939

Claim:
A method of driving a photoelectric conversion element, the photoelectric conversion element comprising a photoelectric conversion portion which includes a pair of electrodes and a photoelectric conversion layer between the pair of electrodes, wherein at least part of the photoelectric conversion layer includes a mixed layer of a p-type organic semiconductor and a fullerene, and a mixing ratio of the fullerene to the p-type organic semiconductor in terms of thickness ratio is equal to or less than one-third; a semiconductor substrate above which at least one photoelectric conversion portion is stacked; a charge accumulating portion disposed in the semiconductor substrate and accumulating a charge generated in the photoelectric conversion layer of the photoelectric conversion portion; a connecting portion that electrically connects one of the pair of electrodes of the photoelectric conversion portion, the one of the pair of electrodes being for collecting the charge to the charge accumulating portion, and an intra-substrate photoelectric conversion portion disposed in the semiconductor substrate, wherein the intra-substrate photoelectric conversion portion absorbs light transmitted through the photoelectric conversion layer of the photoelectric conversion portion and generating and accumulating a charge in proportion to an amount of the light, the method comprising applying a voltage across the pair of electrodes in which a value obtained by dividing the voltage by the distance between the pair of electrodes is from 1.0Ã—10 5 V/cm to 1.0Ã—10 7 V/cm.