Optical modelling of textured organic solar cells

What is it about?

Organic solar cells have the potential to become a low-cost alternative to silicon solar cells. However, their efficiency is reduced due to incomplete solar radiation absorption, among other factors. In this work, we model organic solar cells that include a surface texture that enhances light absorption and thus increasing the efficiency. These textures can be physically implemented through different methods such as direct laser interference patterning or nanoimprint lithography.

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Why is it important?

The results of this work show that implementing surface textures can enhance the efficiency of organic solar cells by 20% under real illumination conditions. In addition the paper explains the optical mechanisms that lead to such absorption enhancement and provides guidelines to optimize geometrical parameters. Moreover, the work shows that these textures can be easily implemented by state-of-the-art microprocessing methods.