A research team at Abdullah Gül University in Türkiye has found that adding tiny dome-shaped bumps to the surface of organic solar cells could boost their light absorption by as much as 66%, while also capturing sunlight from a much wider range of angles. The finding, published in the Journal of Photonics for Energy, could open new paths for solar power in wearable electronics, smart windows, and other settings where flat panels fall short.
At a glance
- Dome-shaped solar cells: Simulations show hemispherical bumps on organic photovoltaic surfaces improve light absorption by 36% to 66%, depending on how the incoming light is polarized.
- Wider light capture: Unlike flat panels optimized for a narrow range of sun angles, the domed design achieved angular coverage of up to 82 degrees — meaning it can pull in light from far more directions.
- Organic photovoltaics: The cells use a polymer called P3HT:ICBA as the active layer, layered above aluminum and a PMMA substrate, capped with a transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) coating — a structure maintained across the full dome shape.
Why flat panels have limits
Most solar panels are flat. That design works well when the sun is nearly perpendicular to the surface, which is why rooftop installations are typically tilted between 15 and 40 degrees to track the sun’s path across the sky.
But flat geometry has real trade-offs. Energy output drops when the sun is low on the horizon, and panels in dynamic or mobile settings — think clothing, curved building facades, or greenhouse roofs — can rarely stay optimally angled. Researchers have long explored ways to coax more performance out of surfaces that cannot be repositioned throughout the day.
How the dome concept works
The Abdullah Gül team, led by Professor Dooyoung Hah, ran a technique called 3D finite element analysis (FEA) on their proposed design. FEA breaks a complex physical system into thousands of smaller, manageable sections, then simulates how light moves through each one. It is a standard engineering tool for testing ideas before anyone picks up a fabrication tool.
The key insight is geometric. When a solar cell’s active layer curves upward into a dome, incoming light hits the surface at a variety of angles simultaneously. That means more of it gets absorbed rather than reflected away. The dome also acts a bit like a lens, bending and concentrating light inward toward the active material.
The simulations compared flat cells against cells dotted with hemispherical bumps and found the improvement ranged from 36% for one polarization of light to 66% for another. The angular range over which the domed cells performed well stretched to 82 degrees — a significant gain over flat alternatives.
Where this could matter most
Professor Hah’s team points to several application areas where omnidirectional light capture is especially valuable. Biomedical devices implanted or worn on the body need to gather energy in whatever position they happen to be in. Power-generating windows face a constantly shifting sun angle throughout the day. Greenhouse panels must let light through for plants while also harvesting some for electricity. Internet-of-things sensors, scattered across buildings and landscapes, rarely sit at a tidy tilt toward the sky.
Organic solar cells are already lighter and more flexible than silicon-based ones, which makes them better candidates for these unconventional formats. Adding a dome architecture could make them more practical still.
“With the improved absorption and omnidirectionality characteristics,” Hah said, “the proposed hemispherical-shell-shaped active layers will be found beneficial in various application areas of organic solar cells, such as biomedical devices, as well as applications such as power-generation windows and greenhouses, internet-of-things, and so on.”
What still needs to happen
The research remains at the simulation stage. The team has not yet fabricated physical dome-shaped cells to test whether real-world results match the model’s predictions. Translating a promising simulation into a manufacturable, durable product is the hard part of materials science — and it is where many elegant concepts stall.
Still, the computational groundwork is solid. Organic photovoltaics have been improving steadily in efficiency and durability over the past decade, and the dome concept builds on a body of related work, including earlier experiments with nanoscale surface texturing on silicon panels that showed similar angular gains. If fabrication proves feasible, the approach could be relevant to the broader push to integrate solar generation into everyday surfaces rather than confining it to dedicated rooftop arrays.
The study was published in the Journal of Photonics for Energy by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
Read more
For more on this story, see: New Atlas
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