title: Light Manipulation in Organic Photovoltaics.
abstract: Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) hold great promise for next-generation photovoltaics in renewable energy because of the potential to realize low-cost mass production via large-area roll-to-roll printing technologies on flexible substrates. To achieve high-efficiency OPVs, one key issue is to overcome the insufficient photon absorption in organic photoactive layers, since their low carrier mobility limits the film thickness for minimized charge recombination loss. To solve the inherent trade-off between photon absorption and charge transport in OPVs, the optical manipulation of light with novel micro/nano-structures has become an increasingly popular strategy to boost the light harvesting efficiency. In this Review, we make an attempt to capture the recent advances in this area. A survey of light trapping schemes implemented to various functional components and interfaces in OPVs is given and discussed from the viewpoint of plasmonic and photonic resonances, addressing the external antireflection coatings, substrate geometry-induced trapping, the role of electrode design in optical enhancement, as well as optically modifying charge extraction and photoactive layers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM) Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices Soochow University Suzhou 215123 P.R. China; Department of Materials Science and Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria 3800 Australia.
authors.forename: Qing-Dong
authors.initials: QD
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM) Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices Soochow University Suzhou 215123 P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yan-Qing
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM) Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices Soochow University Suzhou 215123 P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jian-Xin
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: antireflection nanostructures; light trapping; organic photovoltaics; plasmonics; polymer solar cells