Increasing Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) Efficiency

Organic photovoltaic cells—being lightweight, durable, flexible, and cost-efficient—present novel opportunities for optoelectronic devices, wearables, and other technologies.  Unfortunately, they lag behind inorganic cells in energy harvesting efficiency. The Schuller Group theorizes that this efficiency can be enhanced by optimizing the orientation of organic polymers used in these devices.  In order to demonstrate this theory, we use Momentum-Resolved Spectroscopy to characterize the substrate’s plasmon dispersion relation and absorption characteristics.  We find that our experimental setup is capable of determining, with high accuracy, the location of maximum absorption in our substrate.