Fiber-based architectures for organic photovoltaics

Using poly(3-hexylthiophene) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)-propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)C-61 bulk-heterojunction blends as the absorbing material, organic photovoltaic devices have been fabricated onto multimode optical fibers. The behavior of the short circuit current density, filling factor, and open circuit voltage as the angle of the incident light onto the cleaved fiber face is varied suggests that the evanescent field at the interface between the fiber and the transparent contact may play a role in coupling light from the fiber into the device. Further, optical loss into the device increases as the fiber diameter decreases. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.