We demonstrate how organic solar cell efficiency can be increased by introducing a pure polymer interlayer between the PEDOT:PSS layer and the polymer:fullerene blend. We observe an increase in device efficiency with three different material systems over a number of devices. Using both electrical characterization and numerical modeling we show that the increase in efficiency is caused by optica...

This paper reports on a technology for realization of an optical planar waveguide layer on duroid substrate and on FR4 fiber reinforced board material printed circuit boards. Waveguide core material was EpoCore polymer and for claddings we used EpoClad polymer. Design of the presented planar waveguides was realized on the bases of modified dispersion equation and was schemed for 633 nm, 964 nm,...

We report the synthesis of morphological uniform composites using miniemulsions of poly(tert-butyl acrylate) or poly(styrene) containing organically capped gold nanocrystals (NCs). The optical features of such hybrid structures are dominated by plasmonic effects and depend critically on the morphology of the resulting nanocomposite. In particular, we demonstrate the ability to tune the overall ...

We propose a novel optical design of organic solar cell with a hybrid plasmonic system, which comprises a plasmonic cavity coupled with a dielectric core-metal shell nanosphere. From a rigorous solution of Maxwell's equations, called volume integral equation method, optical absorption of the active polymer material has a four-fold increase. The significant enhancement mainly attributes to the c...

Polymers are receiving considerable attention as components in novel optical systems because of the tailored functionality, ease of manufacturing, and relatively low cost. The processing of layered polymeric systems by coextrusion is a method to produce films comprising hundreds to thousands of alternating layers in a single, one-step roll-to-roll process. Several layered polymer optical system...

Gradient Refractive INdex (GRIN) optical components have historically fallen short of theoretical expectations. A recent breakthrough is the manufacturing of nanolayered spherical GRIN (S-GRIN) polymer optical elements, where the constructionmethod yields refractive index gradients that exceed 0.08. Here we report on the application of optical coherence tomography (OCT), includingmicron-class a...

We introduce here a simple method of integrating 45° total internal reflection micro-mirrors with polymer optical waveguides by an improved tilted beam photolithography on printed circuit boards to provide surface normal light coupling between waveguides and optoelectronic devices for optical interconnects. De-ionized water is used to couple ultraviolet beam through the waveguide core polymer l...