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Folding photons

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Scientists have shown that wrinkles and folds can be used to maximize the absorption of low-energy photons by efficiently redirecting them into a thin absorbing film. This inexpensive technique for structuring photonic substrates could be used to increase the efficiency of many organic photovoltaic cells.

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Figure 1: Long-wavelength photons propagating across a wrinkled and folded substrate.
Figure 2: Charge generation in OPV cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brian A. Gregg and Jao van de Lagemaat are at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd. Golden, Colorado, 80401 USA,

    Brian A. Gregg & Jao van de Lagemaat

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  1. Brian A. Gregg
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  2. Jao van de Lagemaat
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Correspondence to Brian A. Gregg.

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Gregg, B., van de Lagemaat, J. Folding photons. Nature Photon 6, 278–280 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.84

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.84

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