Light trapping in a polymer solar cell by tailored quantum dot emission

We propose a polymer photovoltaic device with a new scattering mechanism based on photon absorption and re-emission in a quantum dot layer. A matrix of aluminum nanorods with optimized radius and period are used to modify the coupling of light emitted from the quantum dots into the polymer layer. Our analysis shows that this architecture is capable of increasing the absorption of an ordinary polymer photovoltaic device by 28%.