Semitransparent polymer solar cells with simultaneously improved efficiency and color rendering index

Herein, we demonstrate a kind of high performance semi-transparent polymer solar cell (STPSC) with a significantly improved color rendering index (CRI) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) by introducing one-dimensional photonic crystals (1DPCs), which are intentionally designed to strongly reflect the pristine weak absorbed light to flatten the concavo-convex transmittance spectrum of STPSCs. The transmitted light from the STPSC device with 4 pairs of 1DPCs under AM 1.5G illumination shows extraordinary color rendering capacities, which contribute an increased CRI from 79 to 91, combined with an enhanced PCE from 4.14% to 5.01% compared to devices without 1DPCs. The simultaneously improved optical and electrical performance suggests that STPSCs can provide a unique feature, which is suitable for building integrated photovoltaic applications.