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The article offers information on the folding photons which can be used to maximize the absorption of low-energy photons by efficiently redirecting them into a thin absorbing film as reported by the scientists after their successful experiments. It mentions that the coupled process of photon absorption in a photovoltaic cell provide a viable low-cost and increased efficiency of many organic photovoltaic cells (OPV) .

We report on the effects of replacing both In2O3:Sn (ITO) and the hole transport layer (HTL) in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) network transparent electrodes. We have produced an OPV device without an HTL exhibiting an NREL-certified efficiency of 2.65% and a short-circuit current density of 11.2 mA/cm2. Our results demonstrate that SWNT networks can be used to replace both ITO and the HTL in efficient OPV devices and that the HTL serves distinctly different roles in ITO- and SWNT-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report two viable organic excitonic solar cell structures where the conventional In2O3:Sn (ITO) hole-collecting electrode was replaced by a thin single-walled carbon nanotube layer. The first structure includes poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and gave a nonoptimized device efficiency of 1.5%. The second did not use PEDOT as a hole selective contact and had an efficiency of 0.47%. The strong rectifying behavior of the device shows that nanotubes are selective for holes and are not efficient recombination sites. The reported excitonic solar cell, produced without ITO and PEDOT, is an important step towards a fully printable solar cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]