Photonic crystal morphology for organic solar cells

We describe a 2-D, photonic crystal morphology that enhances the efficiency of organic photovoltaic cells relative to conventional planar cells. The morphology is developed by patterning an organic photoactive bulk heterojunction blend of Poly(3-(2-methyl-2-hexylcarboxylate)thiophene-co-thiophene) and PCBM via PRINT, a method that lends itself to large area fabrication of nanostructures. The photonic crystal cell offers the possibility to increase photocurrents generally, and particularly through the excitation of resonant modes near the band edge of the active PV materials. The device performance of the photonic crystal cell showed a nearly doubled increase in efficiency relative to conventional planar cell designs.