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Page 1 of 76 Journal of Materials Chemistry C
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
1 The Third Generation Photovoltaic Cells Based on Photonic Crystals
2 Junshi Liu, Mengnan Yao, Liang Shen*
Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

3 State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering,
4 Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun 130012, People’s Republic of China.
5
Published on 14 February 2019. Downloaded by Macquarie University on 2/14/2019 2:15:27 AM.
6 Abstract: The third-generation photovoltaic cells (PVCs) represented by organic
7 solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, quantum dots solar cells and perovskite solar
8 cells have attracted intense attentions due to the low cost, light-weight, flexible and
9 large area, enabling wide application in wearable devices, building photovoltaic and
10 other fields. In order to meet practical applications, PVCs need to own outstanding
11 performance in both optics and electronics. The light management methods induced
12 by photonic crystals (PCs) facing to the third-generation PVCs is considered to be one
13 of the most promising ways to further improve device performance. Benefiting from
14 structure design combined with photonic modes such as Bloch structures, microcavity
15 structures, and interference effects, PCs can be well-used as optics filters, reflectors,
16 or photoanodes to intentionally enhance light trapping and color features. Creatively,
17 the third-generation PVCs based on different dimensions of PCs have been
18 demonstrated by various methods and achieved excellent photovoltaic performance.
19 This review provides a comprehensive and detailed summary of PC-based
20 third-generation PVCs in structure design, physical mechanism and device
21 performance.
22
1
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
1 *Corresponding Author

2 E-mail: shenliang@jlu.edu.cn (L. Shen);
2
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
1 CONTENTS
2 Abstract

3 1 Introduction
4 2. The physical mechanism of PCs in the third-generation OPVs
5 2.1 The physical mechanism of 1D-PCs in the third-generation OPVs

8 3 Application and preparation process of PCs
9 3.1 Application and preparation process of 1D-PCs
12 4 The third-generation photovoltaic cells based on PCs
13 4.1 The OSCs based on PCs
14 4.1.1 The OSCs with top 1D-PCs
15 4.1.2 The OSCs with internal 1D-PCs
16 4.1.3 The OSCs with bottom 1D-PCs
17 4.1.4 The OSCs based on 2D-PCs
18 4.2 The PSCs based on PCs
19 4.2.1 The PSCs based on 1D-PCs
21 4.3 The DSSCs based on PCs
22 4.3.1 The DSSCs based on 1D-PCs
3
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3 5. Summary and Outlook
4 Acknowledgement:
5 References
4
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
1 1 Introduction
2 With the emerging environmental deterioration and energy consumption throughout

3 the world, great efforts have been devoted to photovoltaic technologies that directly
4 convert solar energy to electricity in a convenient and sustainable way.1-5 Despite the
5 first-generation silicon solar cells and second-generation thin-film solar cells were
6 developed persistently,6 the third-generation photovoltaic cells (PVCs) have attracted
7 more and more attention owing to the unique advantages of low cost, large area,
8 lightweight, solution-processed fabrication, and high flexibility. As a result, the
9 third-generation PVCs including organic solar cells (OSCs), dye-sensitized solar cells
10 (DSSCs), quantum dots solar cells (QDSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs),1
11 emerged and rivalled with traditional first and second-generation PVCs. Besides, the
12 third-generation PVCs are mostly prepared by using organic and nano semiconductor
13 materials, which can be intentionally designed to meet specific applications by
14 adjusting the electronic and optical properties.7-10 As an example, retractable OSCs,11
15 photonic filter integrated OSCs,12-14 semi-transparent (ST)-OSCs,15-22 etc., which can
16 be applied on flexible wearable devices, building photovoltaics (BIPV), automotive
17 windshields, and folding curtains and other fields.23-25 In order to better meet the
18 actual applications, PVCs are required to have considerable power conversion
19 efficiency (PCE) and excellent color adjustability. However, the thickness of active
20 layer directly affects the PCE and color of the PVCs, which are inherently restricted
21 each other. Therefore, how to balance the contradiction between the PCE and the
22 color characteristics of PVCs has become an urgent problem to be solved, which has
5
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1 aroused widespread concern of researchers.
2 In recent years, it has become a hot topic that improving the performance of PVCs

3 with light management technology to implement the overall regulation of the internal
4 light field of devices. A variety of light management techniques have been widely
5 investigated to improve light absorption, definitely including photonic crystals (PCs),

6 microcavity structure, and plasmonic nanostructures. Among the proposed light
7 management methods, in particular, PCs based on advantageous optical properties
8 like bloch structure, microcavity structure, interference effect, etc. have attracted
9 considerable attention due to the unique periodic structure. Actually, the PC structures
10 enhance light absorption by controlling the light reception and emission of the device,
11 promoting the color features of PVCs by flattening the transmission spectrum. Herein,
12 we provide an overview of the research progress of the third-generation PVCs based
13 on PCs. Firstly, this review summarizes the application and preparation of the
14 third-generation PVCs based on PCs with different dimensions (one-dimensional PC
15 (1D-PCs),26 two-dimensional PC (2D-PCs)27 and three-dimensional PC (3D-PCs)).28
16 Then, we systematically discuss the development history and the latest status of
17 various PC-based OSCs, PSCs, and DSSCs. Finally, we summarize and look forward
18 to the future development of PC-based the third-generation PVCs.
19
20 2. The physical mechanism of PCs in the third-generation OPVs
21 The concept of PCs was presented in 1987 by E. Yablonovitch29 and S. John30 who
22 co-founded "Photonic Crystal" in this field. Since then, PCs have been rapidly
6
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1 developed and widely used in nano-photonics,31 biologies,32,33 electronic
2 communications,34-36 and other fields.

3 According to Maxwell's equations, the photons propagation equation in PCs can be
4 expressed as,37,38
1 2 𝑤 2
5 ∇ × [𝜀(𝑟) ∇ × 𝐻(𝑟)] = ( 𝑐 ) 𝐻(𝑟) 2.1
6 Where H represents the magnetic field, 𝜀 represents the relative dielectric constant
7 of the medium, and 𝜔 represents the angular frequency of the light. Equation 2.1 has
8 a solution at some specific frequencies, and a photon energy band is formed at this
9 time.39 However there is no solution at the remaining frequencies to form a photonic
10 bandgap (PBG). Therefore, PCs are also known as PBG-PC structures. Actually, it
11 refers to an artificial microstructure with a PBG characteristic and can be periodically
12 arranged by media of different refractive indices.40-42 Due to the periodic arrangement
13 of atoms, Bragg scattering of periodic potential fields is generated to form an energy
14 band structure. Similarly, in a PC structure, a band gap structure is obtained by a
15 periodic change of refractive indexes. When the photon energy is within the PBG, the
16 photon cannot enter the PCs. Therefore, the PCs have the function of wavelength
17 selection, which can selectively pass light in a certain band and block the light of
18 other wavelengths simultaneously. Therefore, we can intentionally adjust and control
19 the movement of photons in the PCs to meet the requirement on the application.43-45
20 According to the periodic dimension of PBG in space, it can be divided into the
21 1D-PCs, 2D-PCs, and 3D-PCs respectively, as shown in Fig. 1.
7
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2 1D-PC means that the dielectric function (x, y, z) varies periodically along a given

3 direction z, and uniform in the others, as in Equation 2.2,45
4 ε(x, y, z) = ε(x, y, z + mΛ) 2.2
5 Where m represents an integer and Λ represents a period, that is, the length of a unit
6 cell. 1D-PC is actually equivalent to a multilayer film structure composed of different
7 medium, which is alternately superposed by two materials in one direction, and the
8 refractive index changes periodically. In the study of 1D-PC, a quarter reference
9 wavelength is usually used as the optical thickness of the film, and the whole structure
10 is equivalent to a quarter-wave stack with a PBG.46,47
11 Herein, we discuss the TE mode (the electric field vector is perpendicular to the
12 incident plane) commonly used in OSCs.47 Highly reflective coatings are typically
13 designed by dielectric quarter-wavelength stacks of alternating high refractive index
14 materials and low refractive index materials. The refractive indices of the two
15 materials can be expressed as (𝑛𝐻 , 𝑑𝐻 ) and (𝑛𝐿 , 𝑑𝐿 ), then the transmission matrix of
16 the PCs with N-layer medium can be expressed as,48,49

𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿𝐻 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿𝐿
𝑀 𝑀12 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝐻 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝐿
17 M = [ 11 ]=[ 𝜂𝐻 ]×[ 𝜂𝐿 ] 2.3
𝑀21 𝑀22 𝑖𝜂𝐻 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿𝐻 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝐻 𝑖𝜂𝐿 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛿𝐿 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛿𝐿
18 Wherein 𝛿𝐻 and 𝛿𝐿 are the optical phase thicknesses of the 𝑛𝐻 and 𝑛𝐿 layers,
19 respectively. The thickness of each layer of optical phase can be expressed as,47
2𝜋
20 δ𝑗 = 𝑛𝑗 𝑑𝑗 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑗 2.4
𝜆
21 Where 𝜃𝑗 represents the angle of refraction in the layer of J, as determined by
22 Snell's law, and J = H or J = L, 𝑛0 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃0 = 𝑛𝑗 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑗 . The transmission matrix of the

8
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1 PCs can be obtained by multiplying the transmission matrix of the single layer
2 medium. If the number of dielectric layers of the PCs is N, the relationship between

3 the incident light field and the transmitted light field is,50
𝐸0 𝐸
4 [ ] = 𝑀 [ 𝑛+1 ] 2.5
𝐻0 𝐻𝑛+1
5 Where 𝐸0 and 𝐻0 represent the electric and magnetic field strengths above the
6 medium, respectively. According to the above equation, the total reflection coefficient
7 r and the total transmission coefficient t can be obtained, respectively.

𝐸𝑟1 𝑀 𝜂 +𝑀 𝜂 𝜂 −𝑀 −𝑀 𝜂
8 r= = 𝑀11 𝜂0 +𝑀12 𝜂0 𝜂𝑛+1 +𝑀21 +𝑀22 𝜂𝑛+1 2.6
𝐸𝑖1 11 0 12 0 𝑛+1 21 22 𝑛+1
𝐸𝑡𝑁+1 2𝜂0
9 t= =𝑀 2.7
𝐸𝑖1 11 𝜂0 +𝑀12 𝜂0 𝜂𝑛+1 +𝑀21 +𝑀22 𝜂𝑛+1
10 Therefore, the transmittance, reflectance, and absorptivity of PCs in OPVs are,
11 T = t ∙ t∗ 2.8
12 R = r ∙ r∗ 2.9
13 A= 1−T−R 2.10
14 Due to interference effects, 1D-PCs are often used in OPVs as distributed brag
15 reflectors (DBR), in which case the interference of the wave at the origin of the PBG
16 is affected by the period of the PC, the ratio of the refractive index, and the angle of
17 the incident light. The refractive indices of the two materials are given as 𝑛𝑎 , 𝑛𝑏 , the
18 thickness is 𝑑𝑎 , 𝑑𝑏 , and the incident angle is 𝜃𝑎 , 𝜃𝑏 respectively. The physical
19 period of 1D-PC can be expressed as 𝑑 = 𝑑𝑎 + 𝑑𝑏 , 𝑛𝑎 ∙ 𝑑𝑎 and 𝑛𝑏 ∙ 𝑑𝑏 are the
20 actual optical paths of light in the corresponding medium, and the optical period can
21 be expressed as,50
𝜆0
22 𝑑𝑎𝑏 = 𝑛𝑎 ∙ 𝑑𝑎 + 𝑛𝑏 ∙ 𝑑𝑏 = ∙X 2.11
2
9
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𝑐
1 Where 𝜆0 = 2𝜋 𝜔 , X is an adjustable parameter, and in the case ofDOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
normal
0
2 incidence, the normalized dispersion relation can be expressed as,

𝑋𝜋𝑔 1 𝑋𝜋𝑔
3 f(𝑔) = 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑘𝑑 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2 ( ) − 2 𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑛2 ( ) 2.12
2 2
4 According to equation 2.11, the relationship between the position of the reflection
5 peak and the optical thickness of the PCs is inferred. Fig.2a is a photograph of
6 experimentally obtained 1D-PCs with different thicknesses.51 And as shown in Fig. 2b,
7 the position of the Bragg peak changes due to the rotational speed of the spin coating
8 and the acceleration of the shaving level affecting the thickness of the PC. It is
9 inferred that the Bragg peak produces a slight red shift as the optical thickness of the
10 PC increases.52
11 According to equation 2.12, it can be concluded that, in TE mode, the relative band
12 gap width is positively correlated with the incidence angle. It can be inferred that the
13 amplitude of reflection coefficient at the interface between the two media increases
14 monotonously with the incidence angle. According to the above equations, the width
15 of g in the PBG can be expressed as,

8
2[𝜋−𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠(1− )]
2+𝑛
16 ∆g = 2.13
𝜋𝑋
8
𝜋−𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑠(1− )
2+𝑛
17 ∆g takes up a ratio of in a cycle and ∆g is a constant. Therefore,
𝜋
18 when X changes, the width g of the normalized PBG does not change. The change of
19 optical period 𝑑𝑎𝑏 causes the change of the center wavelength, which can be inferred
20 that the width of the PBG is positively correlated with the center wavelength. Fig. 3a
21 shows the relationship between the specular reflection spectrum and the 1D-PC of
22 N-layer SiO2/TiO2.53 The relationship between the 1D-PCs of the N-cycle of LiF/WO3
10
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5410.1039/C8TC05461D
1 as well as the reflection and absorption shown in Fig. 3b can also be confirmed.
𝑛 𝑛
2 According to Equation 2.13, since n = 𝑛𝑎 + 𝑛𝑏 , the relative PBG width is

𝑏 𝑎
3 positively correlated with the refractive index ratio of the material, the band gap can
4 be increased by increasing the refractive index of the high-refractive-index materials
5 or decreasing the refractive index of the low-refractive-index materials.

6 Generally, OPVs can be divided into semitransparent OPVs and opaque OPVs in
7 terms of device transparency, and 1D-PCs can promote the performance of both. PCs
8 are usually used in ST-OSCs. Using interference effects, 1D-PCs were deposited on a
9 transparent top electrode, and the PBG of the 1D-PCs was designed to match the
10 absorption spectrum of the active layer. When incident light passes through the top
11 electrode and reaches the 1D-PC interface, light cannot be transmitted inside the PCs
12 due to the existence of a PBG and it can be totally reflected back to the active layer,
13 so that the light can be reabsorbed to effectively increase the PCE of devices. For the
14 color diversity of devices, due to the existence of photon bandgap, visible light of a
15 specific frequency cannot pass through PC, and coherent diffraction is formed on the
16 surface of PC with periodic structure, which macroscopically shows the color of
17 visible light corresponding to a specific frequency.55 For opaque OPVs, such as PSCs,
18 the main purpose of introducing PCs is to maximize the ratio of interlayer refractive
19 index by changing the porosity of each layer structure, thus increasing the relative
20 PBG width. Then, PCs reflection and the inherent strong absorption properties of the
21 perovskite material were used to improve the color tunability of PSCs. It can be
22 applied to building facades, fences, walls, awnings and car casings.56
11
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1

3 2D-PC refers to a material whose dielectric constant changes periodically in two
4 directions and has a photonic forbidden band characteristic in all directions of
5 two-dimensional space, which is composed of parallel and uniform arrangement of

6 dielectric rods. The dielectric function of this structure in the direction perpendicular
7 to the dielectric rod (both directions) is a periodic function of the spatial position,
8 while the dielectric function does not vary with spatial position in a direction parallel
9 to the dielectric.49,57
10 In practical applications, 2D-PC structure can be embedded in plane (flat) dielectric
11 waveguide to form PC plate, so as to absorb more light. Fig. 4a-b shows two PC tablet
12 structures.45 2D-PC enhances light absorption by (1) deviating from the light
13 propagation direction and (2) optical interference effects.
14 In 1982, Eli Yablonovitch established the limit for enhancement in the fraction of
15 absorbed light. This limitation can be achieved if the geometry of the unit is
16 traversed.58 At the same time, Eli Yablonovitch used this principle to design a
17 thin-plate solar cell. 59 Although this is a silicon cell, the main structure of absorbing
18 light is shown in Fig. 4c and the principle of increasing absorption by deviating from
19 the light propagation direction is still applicable to the third-generation OPVs using
20 2D-PCs. As shown in Fig. 4c, Eli Yablonovitch et al.59 embedded silicon particles into
21 the glass plate, and then the device not only absorbed the light directly irradiated on
22 the Si surface, but also collected most of the light received by the glass. It achieves an
12
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1 effect of enhancing light absorption by deviating from the light propagation direction.
2 However, it is worth noting that many people tend to associate ergodicity with

3 randomness, but they are not always together. Ergodicity is not limited to random, but
4 can also be achieved using a 2D periodic distribution of dielectric materials.
5 For example, in 2016, Mariano et al.60 achieved ergodic light propagation using a
6 series of periodic light guide plates formed by interpenetrating fibers, as shown in
7 Figure 5a. In this photonic fiber plate (PFP), the front surface has the same texture as
8 the back surface. Here the ratio of the array period to the cylinder diameter is defined
9 as l⁄𝑑. As shown in Fig. 5b, when there is only one optical fiber, the incident wave
10 focused at the center of the fiber will interfere with the reflected wave, at which point
11 there is no significant light trapping and a fairly regular interference pattern is
12 generated. In contrast, as shown in Fig. 5c, when the cross sections of the fibers
13 overlap (l⁄𝑑 < 1), more disordered patterns are produced. At this point, since the fiber
14 opening can capture light and generate an interference pattern over most areas of the
15 fiber array, it can be inferred that light propagates in all directions, not just back and
16 forth at the interfaces of the fiber, thus forming an ergodic light propagation. In order
17 to further prove that the propagation properties of photons cause PFP absorption
18 enhancement, Mariano et al. consider the trajectory followed by normal incident
19 photons. As shown in Fig. 5d, the motion trajectories of these photons follow the
20 Fresnel reflection and refraction laws. Elementary geometrical considerations show
21 that consecutive bounces (labeled by j) within the same fiber preserve the angle of
22 internal reflection β𝑗 ,
13
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1 ∆β = β𝑗+1 − β𝑗 = 0 2.14
2 According to equation 2.14, when l⁄𝑑 < 1, there is an opening in which a photon

3 is transmitted directly from one fiber to another. When this occurs, β𝑗 changes
4 abruptly, with high sensitivity to the initial point of incidence for a given photon. It
5 can be inferred that in this cylindrical structure, photons follow a chaotic trajectory
6 and have a higher probability of absorption. As shown in Fig. 5e, the EQE of the
7 PFP-based OPV device is significantly improved, and the absorption capacity of light
8 has been increased by more than 30 %.
9 It should be noted that, as it has been discussed in many papers, one may go beyond
10 the conventional limit for light trapping, but this is always for a limited range of
11 wavelengths, and typically this is not achieved using PCs. However, by adjusting the
12 2D periodic distribution of the dielectric material to maximize the light propagation in
13 the ergodic geometry is an effective method to improve the performance of the
14 2D-PCs based OPVs.
15 For device requirement, diffraction occurs when light is incident perpendicular to
16 the 2D-PC and passes through the PCs55, following Bragg's law,
17 𝜆0 = 2𝑛𝑎 𝑑𝑛𝑘𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑑𝑖𝑓 2.15
18 Where 𝜆0 is the diffraction wavelength of the sample in air, 𝑑𝑛𝑘𝑙 is the
19 interplanar spacing, 𝑛𝑎 is the average refractive index of the system, and 𝜃𝑑𝑖𝑓 is the
20 Bragg diffraction angle. It can be seen from formula 2.15 that changing the average
21 refractive index or the interplanar spacing of the system can cause the PBG to move,
22 thereby causing the color change of the device.
14
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2 3D-PCs are materials that have a dielectric constant that changes periodically in

3 three directions and have a photonic band forbidden characteristic in all directions in
4 three dimensions. 3D-PCs have full range of PBG, that is, light falling in the band gap
5 is prohibited from propagating in any direction.49,57

6 For OSCs and PSCs, 1D-PCs and 2D-PCs can effectively improve device
7 performance. However, there is nothing that cannot be achieved using either 1D-PCs
8 or 2D-PCs can be achieved using 3D one. The photonic structure preparation of
9 3D-PCs is more complicated, so there is no report about 3D-PCs based OSCs and
10 PSCs until now. For DSSCs, different from OSCs and PSCs, the properties of DSSCs
11 are primarily determined by dye photosensitizers and mesoporous membrane
12 materials that can absorb a large number of dye molecules. 3D-PCs have large
13 interconnected pores and specific surface area, which can provide more excellent
14 carriers for sensitizers, increase the adsorption area of the surface, enable dyes to fully
15 permeate and adsorb, and PCs can also generate enough Bragg diffraction and
16 multiple scattering phenomenon.61
17 In DSSCs, 3D inverse opal (IO) structure has the most extensive application. It is
18 composed of many tens to hundreds of nanometer air balls densely packed into a 3D
19 ordered array in a material, which is face-centered cubic (FCC). Bragg position of IO
20 film is related to the refractive index comparison between the background medium
21 (air/electrolyte) and the target material. Therefore, the optical properties of
22 3D-IO-PCs depend on the periodic size and shape. Adjust formula 2.15 to get the
15
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1 Bragg equation as,45,62
1
𝐷
2 λ𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 2𝑑111 ∙ 𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑓 = 1.633 ∙ 𝑀 ∙ (𝑓1 ∙ 𝑛1 2 + 𝑓2 ∙ 𝑛2 2 )2 2.16

3 Where 𝑑111 is the (111) plane spacing of the FCC structure, 𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑓 is the effective
4 refractive index of the IO film, D is the diameter of the spherical cavity, m is the order
5 of reflection (usually considered as the first order reflection m = 1) , n1 and n2 are the
6 refractive index of target material and cavity, and 𝑓1 and 𝑓2 are the filling factors of
7 volume respectively. When the incident light is perpendicular to the (111) crystal
8 plane, the position of the Bragg reflection peak can be estimated using formula 2.16.
9 It is inferred that the position of the Bragg reflection peak can be adjusted by
10 changing the cavity diameter of the 3D-IO, and the cavity diameter of the 3D-IO can
11 be controlled by the diameter of the polystyrene (PS). Fig. 6 shows the relationship
12 between the diameter of the sphere and the reflection spectrum, and the position of the
13 Bragg diffraction peak is positively correlated with the diameter of the sphere.62 In
14 addition, the thickness of the IO film is limited. As the film thickness increases,
15 multiple reflections and interferences are caused, resulting in a significant increase in
16 the reflection intensity, and a slight redshift in the reflection peak can be observed. If
17 the wavelength covered by the PBG changes, IO films of different colors will be
18 realized.63
19
20 3 Application and preparation process of PCs
22 1D-PCs, as the simplest and most common PCs, refers to a dielectric structure
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26
1 which has periodic changes in 1D and appears uniform in the other two dimensions.
2 It has been found that incorporating 1D-PCs into PVCs could cause the inherent

3 periodicity of the PCs to be destroyed, adding additional degrees of freedom, and
4 effectively collecting visible, near-infrared, and ultraviolet light inside the devices.45 It
5 can be used as a Bragg reflector in the third-generation PVCs.43,64 Common structures

6 include (1) alternating deposition of two or more materials with different refractive
7 indexes to form a photonic multilayer film,16,17,19,54,65-74 (2) nanostructure, 75-77 and (3)
8 a plurality of 1D-PCs in series.72 The 1D-PCs are deposited directly on the top or
9 bottom of the cells in PVCs or coupled to a photoanode or as a counter electrode to
10 enhance PVCs performance.
11 Photonic multilayer films are generally prepared by alternately evaporating high
12 refractive index materials and low refractive index materials under high vacuum
13 condition. Due to the uncomplicated operation technology, they have been widely
14 used in experimental operations in recent years. Representative materials
15 combinations such as WO3/LiF, MO3/LiF, TiO2/SiO2, TiO2/LiF have been reported.
16 During the period of 2013-2018, Shen group used a method of alternating deposition
17 to prepare a 1D-PCs with an N-layer of periodic structure on the top Ag electrode of a
18 PVC under a high vacuum. As an example, in 2013, a high-efficiency and
67
19 high-transmittance OSC based on 1D-PCs was prepared, a maximum PCE of
20 4.12 %, a highest transmittance of 80.4 % at 660 nm are obtained, in which the
21 specific method of PCs was to prepare the completed OSCs under high vacuum (5×10
-4
22 Pa) without breaking the vacuum. Eight pairs of WO3 (62.4 nm)/LiF (90.5 nm) were
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1 alternately evaporated on the top Ag electrode, and the deposition rate was about 1 nm
2 s-1, as shown in Fig. 7a-b. In 2016, Zhang et al.,70 prepared a multi-layer

3 high-refractive-index TiO2 and low-refractive-index SiO2 alternating PC by sputtering
4 and then deposited a thin layer of ITO on the PC. In that work, the 1D-PCs were
5 located at the bottom of the cell to enhance photon absorption and improve device
6 performance. Comparing with those of OSCs without using 1D-PCs, the integrated
7 photon flux density in the active layer is increased by 27.2 %, the PCE of 5.20 % and
8 JSC of 12.25 mA cm2 increased by 37 % and 38 %, respectively. The cell structure is
9 shown in Fig. 7c.
10 The 1D-PCs structure available in PVCs also includes nanostructure PCs. 1D
11 nanostructured materials such as nanowires, nanorods, nanobelts and nanopillars have
12 been used in the research of various optoelectronic devices.73 On the one hand, when
13 the size of the nanostructure is smaller than the wavelength of the incident light, the
14 light will have a scattering effect in the nanostructure, which reduces the reflection
15 loss at the surface and enhances the light absorption. On the other hand, 1D nano
16 structures have a high surface to volume ratio and aspect ratio, providing sufficient
17 diffusion length for photons, leading to enhanced transmission performance.
18 Therefore, 1D nanostructure can effectively increase collection and transport
19 properties.78 For example, TiO2 nanocolumn is a common nanostructure PC, the
20 preparation process is roughly divided into the following steps (1) potent anodizing
21 treatment of Ti crucible, followed by (2) ultrasonic treatment to obtain flat Ti, and
22 finally (3) using periodic the high alternating current and the low alternating current
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1 are again anodized to obtain a TiO2 nanocolumns.76,79,80
2 In 2016, F. Javier Ramos etc.73 put forward three different 1D-PCs coupling

3 photoanodes based on TiO2 nanocolumns, in which the alternately deposited
4 nanocolumns have different refractive indices (n) and are deposited by physical vapor
5 deposition method at oblique angle deposition (PVD-OAD) in order to obtain an

6 accurate and uniform thickness of the nanopillar. PC1 is alternately deposited by two
7 kinds of TiO2 nanopillar with different refractive indexes by using an electron beam
8 evaporator in PVD-OAD. Because of the porosity of the individual layer changes
9 during the deposition process, the refractive index also changes. In order to obtain a
10 more significant refractive index change, SiO2 is introduced into PC2 and PC3
11 structures. PC2 directly deposits a high refractive index TiO2 on the FTO substrate as
12 the first layer of PC, acting as a buffer layer, and then deposits SiO2 and TiO2 porous
13 nanopillar layers successively while maintaining the deposition angle. In the same
14 way, PC3 alternately deposits TiO2/SiO2/TiO2 nanopillars in the same manner, and the
15 porosity of SiO2 and TiO2 layers are similar. It is worth noting that PC2 is deposited
16 directly on the FTO, and in order to avoid the low fill factor caused by SiO2, the first
17 layer of dense TiO2 film is replaced by nanopillars in PC3. Therefore, PC3 exhibits
18 superior photovoltaic properties. In addition, Heiniger et al.81 used the strong
19 reflectivity of PC to combine SiO2 with ITO to form PC as the counter electrode of
20 DSSCs. Firstly, SiO2 nanoparticles were spin-coated on FTO substrates and then ITO
21 was deposited on SiO2 by RF magnetron sputtering after annealing. The same
22 operation was repeated 6 times to form 1D-PCs, and the annealing was performed to
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1 form a counter electrode, which can enhance the performance while ensuring the
2 transparency of the device.43

3 PCs can be also connected in series. Yang et al.72 designed a PVC structure in
4 which two PCs were deposited in series on Ag cathodes and applied to the greenhouse.
5 Each series of PCs was alternately deposited with 4 pairs of TiO2 and LiF, but the
6 thickness of the two PCs connected in series was uniform. The specific structure is
7 shown in Fig. 7d. Since PC1 is forbidden to reflect wavelength band in the range of
8 700-900 nm and PC2 cannot form a PBG, the tandem PC exhibits higher
9 transmittance than the PC alone, and is more suitable for practical applications.
10 All the above methods can produce 1D-PCs. Among them, the method of
11 alternately evaporating the high refractive index material and the low refractive index
12 material under vacuum has the advantages of large evaporation rate and strong
13 controllability, and is the most convenient method at present, and has universal
14 applicability.
15
17 2D-PCs are made of a structure with a certain dielectric constant, which change
18 periodically in two directions of the spatial plane and remain stable in a direction
19 perpendicular to the plane.27 The 2D-PC structures applied to PVCs includes
20 micro-lens group,82,83 2D-PC plate with symmetrical triangular, square or hexagonal
21 honeycomb lattice,84 2D-IO-PC,85 PFP,60,86 and 2D honeycomb stent structure (HC).87
22 Among them, the 2D-IO-PC structured film composed of an ordered array of voids
20
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1 surrounded by solid materials, is a structure in which the high refractive index
2 material and the low refractive index material are alternately and periodically

3 arranged.88 2D-PCs are typically fabricated in a slab waveguide using nanoimprint or
4 photolithographic techniques from top to bottom and have a full band gap photonic
5 structure.71,89,90 The nanoimprinting comprises the following three steps (1) heating
6 the polymer deposited on the base, the heating temperature is required to be higher
7 than the temperature at which the polymer is converted into glass, (2) preparing the
8 polymer to be embossed and covering the stamp, and finally (3) lowering the
9 temperature. When the temperature reaches room temperature, the stamp can be
10 removed from the surface of the samples to complete the nanoimprint,84 which is
11 shown in Fig. 8.
12 In 2014, Akshit Peer et al.82,83 proposed a micro-lens group, as shown in Fig. 9a. It
13 is a polymer array existing at the interface between glass and air, which is
14 manufactured by nanoimprinting and can efficiently collect and diffract light. The
15 plasmon mode is enhanced by continuously adjusting the height to pitch ratio and
16 lateral spacing of the micro-lens array, further increasing the photocurrent, and then
17 the micro-lens group is coupled to the metal cathode of the PVC to enhance device
18 performance, the enhancement was 38 % for photocurrent and 36 % for weighted
19 absorption respectively. To further enhance the photon absorption of the active layer
20 in PVCs, D. Duché et al.84 created a perforated PC plate with a hexagonal grid. The
21 geometry of the 2D-PC plate was firstly optimized and simulated by finite difference
22 time domain, and nanoimprinting was performed after ion etching. PVCs
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1 incorporating 2D-PC plates exhibit superior light absorption properties. Subsequently,
2 Chen Ming et al.91 and Baek et al.92 proposed the 2D-PC of the TiO2 nanopillar array

3 almost simultaneously in 2017. The former uses TiO2 nanopillar array as counter
4 electrode in PVC devices. The preparation process of 2D-PCs can be summarized as
5 follows:75 firstly, TiO2 nanoparticles are spin-coated and sintered to form a TiO2
6 electrode, then polystyrene is spin-coated on the electrode as a physical mask. Similar
7 to the above method, 2D-PC electrodes were obtained by ion etching and
8 nanoimprinting. In addition, in 2006 the Meng et al.85 reported a 2D IO perovskite
9 photonic film as the light absorbing layer, and the IO films have a honeycomb lattice.
10 The specific method can be described as follow:85 firstly, the precursor solution was
11 infiltrated and spin coated. Because of the concentration of the precursor solution
12 affects the quality of the IO perovskite film, it is necessary to adjust the concentration
13 of the precursor solution according to the mask. Then, the solvent was evaporated and
14 the perovskite films were crystallized. Finally, the mask was removed and 2D-IO-PC
15 was obtained, as shown in Fig. 10a. Recently, in 2017, Snaith et al.87 reported a 2D
16 HC, Firstly, self-assembly is used to obtain PS and transferred to the substrate, and
17 then, a hexagonal non-close-packed single-layer PS is obtained by plasma etching.
18 Subsequently, SiO2 is spin coated to fill the interstitial space and sintered to form a
19 reverse SiO2 HC structure. Finally, the perovskite layer is spin-coated again and
20 annealed to form a stable HC, as shown in Fig. 10b.
21
22
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2 The 3D-PCs exhibits a periodic change in refractive index in three perpendiculars

3 to each other directions in space, which is the most complicated one in the PC
4 structure.43-45 IO is the most common type of 3D-PCs, which is mostly used as
5 photoanode or counter electrode in DSSCs. Due to the periodic arrangement, the

6 pores in IO are large, which can effectively penetrate the electrolyte, enhance the
7 scattering effect, and improve the performance of device.93
8 The IO can be fabricated by self-assembly of the spheres in the colloidal solution,
9 and then the IO voids are filled with TiO2 or Si or other materials having a higher
10 refractive index, and finally, the mask is removed to obtain a completed IO
11 structure,43 as shown in Fig. 11a. The self-assembly process and the void filling
12 process are the main parts that affect the formation of IO. Therefore, by optimizing
13 the design of these two processes, a richer IO structure will be obtained. In the past,
14 many researchers have studied this topic and proposed vertical deposition method,
43,94-104
15 spin-on deposition method,43,105-109 chemical vapor deposition method, 43,96,97,99
16 atomic layer deposition method,43,94-96 Physical limitation etc.43,110 for optimal design.
17 However, the photonic bandgap formed by this method is inferior in stability, so in
18 actual operation, a small amount of disorder occurs, and it is difficult to form a
19 complete 3D-PC. 45,111,112
20 Recently, the Xu et al.93 produced 3D IO TiO2 PC directly on a non-planar
21 electrode in DSSCs, achieving higher power conversion efficiency of DSSCs. Firstly,
22 the spheres are synthesized by methyl methacrylate and self-assembled, and after
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1 sintering, they are infiltrated with TiCl4 to fill the voids therein. After annealing to
2 remove the TiO2 network lattice, the sample was hung from the glass substrate with a

3 doctor blade, etched with an HF solution, and finally deposited on the photoelectrode,
4 as shown in Fig. 11b.
5 In summary, PCs have been widely used in the manufacture of the third-generation
6 PVCs due to the particular properties. Various studies have been carried out to prepare
7 PCs using simpler methods and updated materials. Furthermore, the application of
8 high-PCE PVCs based on PCs will become the main focus of new energy in the
9 future.
10
11 4 The third-generation photovoltaic cells based on PCs
12 At present, the third generation of PVCs has become the main research content. By
13 skillfully incorporating PCs to the third-generation photovoltaic structures, the device
14 can effectively improve optical absorption and PCE to achieve excellent performance.
15 In this section, we systematically summarize the performance and applications of
16 OSCs, PSCs, and DSSCs based on PCs of different dimensions in recent years, and
17 hope to provide new solution for the development of PVCs.
18
19 4.1 The OSCs based on PCs
20 OSCs refer to solar cells based on organic semiconductors, and the thickness of
21 active layer is generally less than 100 nm due to the poor charge carrier mobilities.113
22 As an important part of OSCs, ST-OSCs can be applied to BIPV, automotive
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1 windshields, etc. due to their dual characteristics of optical transmission and power
2 generation. It has become one of the most promising photovoltaic devices as a hot

3 topic in this field. The light transmittance characteristics of ST-OSCs are premised on
4 the sacrifice of a portion of sunlight, which also leads to a reduction in PCE of the
5 device. Meanwhile, for the structure of ST-OSCs, the top transparent electrodes are
6 required to ensure the total light transmittance. However, due to the thickness
7 limitation of the electrodes, the thin semitransparent electrodes cannot provide
8 sufficient specular reflection, so that the active layer can only absorb part of the
9 incident light. The rest of the light passes directly through the device and does not
10 contribute the ideal PCE. Therefore, using the PCs as DBR, when the 1D-PCs
11 matches the absorption spectrum of the active layer, the light in the PBG cannot be
12 transmitted in the PCs which works as DBR. Therefore, incident light can be reflected
13 back into the device more times to improve the OSCs performance. Meanwhile, light
14 in other wavelength ranges can still be transmitted, to pass through the devices, which
15 contribute a semitransparent characteristic. Structurally, the 1D-PCs can be deposited
16 directly on the top electrodes, applied to the interior of the cells, or deposited on the
17 bottom of the cells.
18
19 4.1.1 The OSCs with top 1D-PCs
20 The 1D-PCs can be deposited directly on the top electrode and acts as back
21 reflector to adjust the light with PBG. When the reflection spectrum matches the
22 spectrum of the active layer, the incident light within photonic forbidden band can be
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1 reflected back to the active layer more times, selectively enhancing light absorption in
2 high reflection range and allowing light to pass through the device in high

3 transmission range. Furthermore, the PCs can also be designed to flatten uneven
4 transmission spectrum to obtain neutral color. In addition, due to the optical
5 interference effect of the PCs, the PCs have an angle dependence. When the incident
6 light angle changes, the interference process inside the PC changes, as the angle
7 increases, the transmittance of the device shifts significantly to short wavelengths. 68
8 In 2013, Shen group67 demonstrated that thermal evaporation of N pairs of
9 WO3/LiF directly as a Bragg reflector on the top electrode can effectively improve the
10 performance of ST-OSCs based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): indene-C60
11 bisadduct (ICBA) mixture. When the reflection spectrum of the 1D-PCs was matched
12 with the absorption spectrum of the active layer, the light can be sufficiently absorbed
13 due to the forbidden band limit. So, in the wavelength range of 460-580 nm, the
14 combination of PCs and Ag electrodes achieved reflection near 100 %, resulting in a
15 PCE of 4.12 % for the device, which was 24.1 % higher than that of devices without
16 1D-PCs. Subsequently, in order to pursue more efficient OSCs, the same principles
17 and methods were continued to apply in the low band gap polymer to fabricate
18 ST-OSCs. When the light illuminates from the ITO side, the device are capable of
19 producing a powerful PVC effect. When light illuminates from the other side, the light
20 within forbidden band will be reflected back into the air. The PCE of device reached
21 5.16 % and the measured average visible light transmittance (AVT) was 29.3 %.68
22 However, they found that the enhancement of the light absorption caused by PCs was
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1 always studied in the strong absorption region of the active layer, in the low DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
incident
2 photon-to-electron conversion (IPCE) region, the impact of PCs on light trapping has

3 not been considered before, which has great potential for improving PCE. Therefore,
4 in order to prove the role of 1D-PCs in the weak absorption range, they continue to
5 design a 1D-PCs that can effectively match the active layer in the low IPCE range. 16
6 In the wavelength range of 400-500 nm, the device has a high reflectance close to
7 100 % and a transmittance close to 0 % simultaneously. The IPCE gradually appeared
8 peak at around 450 nm compared with the reference devices, indicating that the JSC
9 gradually increased, while the IPCE remained stable in other wavelength ranges,
10 demonstrating that 1D-PCs achieved an enhancement of light absorption in the weak
11 absorption range for the first time. The reflectance, transmittance spectra and IPCE
12 characteristics are shown in Figures 12a-c. Finally, the PCE was measured as high as
13 4.84 %. Compared to the control device, JSC was increased by about 13.9 % and PCE
14 was increased by about 14.2 % respectively.
15 With the rapid development of BIPV,114-116 the requirements for power supply and
16 natural light can be met by ST-OSCs.117-123 How to make color rendering index (CRI)
17 close to 100 and the chromaticity difference (DC) ≤ 0.0054, which represent the
18 application requirement in BIPV, has become the main problem in the research field.
19 In 2015, Shen group19 proposed an idea to balance the transmission spectra with PCs
20 which did not play a role of DBR anymore. They still deposited the 1D-PCs directly
21 on the top electrode, which consisted of 5 pairs of WoO3/LiF. By optimizing the PC
22 pairs, as shown in Fig. 13a-e, the transmission spectrum is matched with the light
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1 absorption range of the active layer to make the OSCs transmission spectrumDOI:
flat10.1039/C8TC05461D
and
2 enhances the color rendering performance of the device. Meanwhile, the PCE of the

3 device can be effectively guaranteed owing to the reflection of the 1D-PCs. The
4 experimental results manifested that the PCE reached 5.31 % accompanied with CRI
5 of 95, and the DC was 0.0005, which almost the optimum parameter of ST-OSCs.
6 Subsequently, they extended this idea to low bandgap polymer based OSCs, which
7 was demonstrated that the introduction of ID-PC was still effective for CRI
8 enhancement. With the active layer of PSBTBT: PC60BM, the PC acts as an
9 uncompleted filter and a mirror, and the device structures shown in Fig. 14a
10 contributed CRI of 91.54 In 2017, they continued to work on improving the PCE and
11 CRI of ST-OSCs, the PCs and metal nanoparticles were introduced the OSCs
12 simultaneously. The metal nanoparticles acted as plasmon resonance centers to
13 increase the light absorption, and the PCs play a role in flatting the transmission
14 spectrum. As a result, the PCE as high as 7.07 % was obtained with the CRI of 95.66
15 Device structure and device efficiency showing different colors are shown in Fig.
16 14b-c.
17 In addition, Betancur et al.65 used a non-periodic 1D thin-film photonic structure to
18 eliminate the inherent periodicity of PCs and increase the degree of freedom, enabling
19 it to capture near-infrared and near-ultraviolet photons, achieving a PCE over 5.6 %
20 and AVT of 30 % in ST-OSCs. Yang et al.72 designed OSC that uses a series of
21 1D-PCs of different thicknesses in series to achieve an AVT of 40.3 % in a visible
22 wavelength of 400-700 nm.
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1 By depositing 1D-PCs directly as back reflector on the top electrode, the PCE has
2 been significantly enhanced by capturing light using the inherent interference

3 characteristics of PCs. In addition, light/material interactions can be utilized to
4 improve device light absorption, and can be achieved by introducing 1D-PCs into the
5 OSCs.
7 4.1.2 The OSCs with internal 1D-PCs
8 Integrating 1D-PCs tablet inside the OSCs, the active layer is coupled with a slow
9 Bloch mode (SBMs) with a low group speed.84,124-128 The interaction of light/material
10 can be effectively improved, and the lifetime of photons within the active layer is
11 prolonged, resulting in enhanced light absorption.84
12 Based on this principle, D. Duché et al.84 studied the optical properties of two
13 OSCs based on 1D-PCs and active layers of blend (poly-3-hexylthiophene and
14 [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butirycacid methyl ester) (P3HT: PCBM) and
15 (poly(3-(2-methyl-2-hexyl-carboxylate) thiophene-co-thiophene): PCBM, respectively.
16 The 1D-PCs are composed of a 1D (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)
17 poly(styrenesulfonate)) (PEDOT: PSS) grating and an Ag grating. The structure of the
18 device is shown in Fig. 15a. The absorption spectra of active layers inside the two
19 OSC after optimization are compared as shown in Fig. 15b-c. The absorption gains of
20 the two OSCs were found to be 3.5 % and 13.8 %, respectively. It can be seen that the
21 PCs inside the cells effectively enhance the ability to absorb photons.
22 Although this structure can enhance light absorption, the velocity of the SBMs
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1 affects the time of light/material interaction, resulting in enhancing light absorption
2 while making optical coupling difficult.126,127 In addition, when processing PCs in

3 high-refractive-index film layers, energy transfer is caused to affect device
4 performance.129 Therefore, OSCs with internal 1D-PCs has not been further studied.
5
6 4.1.3 The OSCs with bottom 1D-PCs
7 As for the research of OSCs based on 1D-PCs, a multilayer film photonic structure
8 typically thermally evaporated low-refractive-index and high-refractive-index
9 materials in a vacuum at the top of a solution-treated active layer. However, the
10 penetration of hot metal atoms leads to damage of the active layers, which adversely
11 affects the unformed devices.70,130 Therefore, considering the change of the device
12 structure, the deposition order of the active layers and the 1D-PCs were adjusted.
13 1D-PC structures were fabricated in front of the active layers and deposited on the
14 bottom of the OSCs as photoanodes.
15 In 2016, the Zhang et al.70 demonstrated ST-OSCs based on the bottom-located
16 1D-PCs. The top of the cell was a solution-treated PEDOT: PSS layer with high
17 transmission and conductivity, ensuring that light can illuminate from the top to the
18 bottom. Consistent with the principle mentioned above, excitons are generated in the
19 device to enhance the photocurrent due to the interference effect, the PCs act as mirror
20 to reflect the light twice or more times. The J-V curve of the device is shown in Fig.
21 16a. The JSC of the device was experimentally determined to be 12.25 mA cm-2, and
22 the PCE was 5.2 %. The transmission spectrum obtained by the experiment is shown
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1 in Fig. 16b. In the visible light region, the transmittance changes from highDOI:
to10.1039/C8TC05461D
low,
2 demonstrating the color tunability of the devices.

3 In summary, the interference effect of 1D-PCs can significantly improve the
4 performance of OSCs, and the 2D-PCs can also enhance the performance of the
5 device by light absorption from the direction of light propagation. In addition, 2D-PCs
6 prepared by nanoimprinting method make it possible to use a roll-to-roll method to
7 process large surfaces on the production.131,132
9 4.1.4 The OSCs based on 2D-PCs
10 It has been testified that 1D-PCs can effectively improve the performance of
11 ST-OSCs, but the 2D-PCs can supply more effective means based on light
12 managements by changing device structures. The 2D-PC-based OSCs have been
13 reported to have two structures including a micro-lens array and a 2D-PC plate, both
14 of which play a positive role in improving device performance.
15 Akshit Peer82,83 advocated the OSCs based on polymer micro-lens for the first time.
16 A polymer micro-lens assembly is fabricated at the air-glass interface that focuses and
17 diffracts the light to create a dense waveguide mode network that enhances the photon
18 component. Subsequently, the micro-lens group is coupled to a periodically textured
19 metal cathode to broadband light absorption, thereby promoting enhance the
20 photocurrent. At the interface between the cathodes and the organic metals, the
21 conical metal protrusions with triangular lattice symmetry constitute a periodic array,
22 and the symmetry micro-lens group on the top side of the glass has the same lattice
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1 shape as the cathode cone. In the experiment, by optimizing the micro-lens pitch
2 (a=500nm), the weighted absorption enhancement of the device was 49 %, and the

3 photocurrent was enhanced by 58 %, as shown in Fig. 17a.
4 Subsequently, D. Duché et al.84 proposed to use the nanoimprint method to directly
5 pattern the P3HT: PCBM film in the OSCs to prepare 2D-PC plate printed with a
6 hexagonal grid. The lattice holes can effectively enhance the light absorption of the
7 OSCs. The Bloch mode is coupled over a wide spectral range, and the geometry of
8 this hexagonal mesh exhibits an enhancement of the electric field inside the
9 material.133 In the wavelength range of 620-680 nm, the absorption gain is
10 significantly enhanced which is shown in Fig. 17b. It is also a practice that enables
11 large-area preparation at low cost without changing the optical and electrical
12 properties of the material.
13 In a nutshell, most of the researches on PC-based OSCs have focused on 1D-PCs,
14 so far there has been no report on 3D-PCs coupled OSCs, which is related to the
15 complex structure of 3D-PCs. However, the optical management function of PCs in
16 OSCs has been effectively demonstrated, and it can be further optimized in the future
17 to obtain OSCs with higher performance.
18
19 4.2 The PSCs based on PCs
20 PSCs exhibit excellent potential in the field of photovoltaics due to the high
21 efficiency, low cost, and simple preparation process. A large number of studies have
22 been carried out by researchers, especially PSCs has achieved 23.2 % of PCE with a
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1 hole transporting material with a fine-tuning energy level and a high glass transition
2 temperature.134 In order to apply PSCs more widely to life such as building windows,

3 automobile windshields, etc., PSCs are required to have various color characteristics.
4 However, due to the charge transport properties of PSCs, the total thickness of the
5 PSC is typically 400 nm.135,136 Since the thickness of the device limits the color
6 tunability, there is a contradiction between the color of the PSCs and the PCE.137
7 Therefore, the main purpose of introducing the PCs is to effectively increase the color
8 diversity of the device while not sacrificing efficiency.
10 PSCs are typically presented between the n-type and p-type charge collection layers
11 or into the mesoporous layer of n-type TiO2 or insulating dielectric material,
12 consisting of CH3NH3PbI3 or the mixed halide variant CH3NH3PbI3-xClx.138-142
13 Despite considerable efficiency, the color of the perovskite material is lack of blue
14 and green.143,144 In order to broaden the color gamut and achieve a green-to-blue
15 spectral coverage to meet BIPV application requirements, Snaith et al135 constructed a
16 porous 1D-PCs using TiO2/SiO2 and coupled it into active layers of PSCs, as shown in
17 Fig. 18a-c. Under the condition of ensuring high reflectivity, the interlayer refractive
18 index contrast is maximized by changing the porosity of each layer structure. Colorful
19 and non-transparent PSCs with shades of blue, cyan and green are achieved by PC
20 reflection and strong absorption of perovskite material. At the same time, the PCs can
21 reflect the incident light of a specific frequency to reduce the heat gain in the PSCs,
22 which is beneficial to enhance the conversion efficiency for further actual application.
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1 It is obvious that the introduction of the PCs can make the PSCs have more functions
2 to expand its application field.

3 In 2016, Ahmad et al.73 used angle physical deposition technology (PVD-OAD) to
4 prepare precise and uniform nanopillars. By adjusting the tilt angle, film thickness of
5 PVD-OAD and selecting different metal oxides, three different configurations of

6 porous 1D-PCs were prepared as the photoanodes of PSCs based on CH3NH3PbI3.
7 The structures of three devices are shown in Fig. 19a-f. As the incident angle of the
8 deposition changes, the porosity and refractive index also change with it. PCs are used
9 as the photoanodes, which can produce optical interference and dispersion effects
10 together with the FTO, maximizing light absorption and causing photocurrent
11 enhancement. The PCE of the three devices was 10.94 %, 6.39 %, and 12.03 %,
12 respectively.
13 In PSCs, the reflective properties of 1D-PCs can be used to enhance device
14 performance, while enhancing the light absorption and color improvement by
15 improving the contact area between PCs and perovskites. The absorption principle of
16 2D-PCs is not exactly the same as that of 1D one. 2D-PCs can enhance the light
17 absorption from the propagation direction. For this reason, the researchers discussed
18 2D-PCs based PSCs.
19
21 The 2D-PCs applied to the PSCs mainly include an IO structure, a nanotube array, a
22 light management foil, HC structure, etc. They can be used for the active layers of the
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1 device, the light absorbing layer or the outside layers of the device. Since DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
2D-PCs
2 have multiple photon modes and can achieve ergodic light absorption, it is considered

3 that the use of 2D-PCs is expected to improve the performance of colorful PSCs.
4 Marko et al. 145 created a textured light management foil on the side of the inverted
5 PSCs of front glass by nanoimprinting, which has excellent resistance to refraction

6 and light absorption, reducing the loss of reflection and enhancing light trapping,
7 contributing a measured PCE of 17.1 %. However, the thickness of the active layer in
8 a high performance PSCs is generally greater than 300 nm. If the thickness of the
9 active layer is lowered, the absorption of infrared light will be reduced.91,146 In order
10 to solve the problem of incomplete light absorption, Chen et al.91 studied the 2D-PC
11 structures as the light absorption layer for the ultra-thin lead halide PSCs, and the
12 TiO2 nanotube as the electron transport layer. The device structure is shown in Fig.
13 20a-b. 2D nanotube arrays have a high specific surface area, which can reduce exciton
14 recombination, increase the contact interface with perovskites, and have a positive
15 impact on charge extraction and collection. As shown in the absorption spectrum of
16 the active layer in Fig. 20c, the device has an absorption efficiency of 65.7 % in the
17 range of 350-800 nm, which is 18.4 % higher than that of the planar unit. The results
18 suggest that this structure can provide new mind for future light management of PSCs.
19 In 2015, Fan et al.147 used a 2D-PC structure of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
20 nano-cone array as an anti-reflective coating to enhance the light absorption of the
21 flexible PSC. The 2D-PCs can improve the light transmittance of the glass substrate
22 and have hydrophobic effect, and the perovskite light absorbing layer is more stable
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1 and can prolong the life of the device. As shown in Fig. 21a-b, the experimentally
2 determined JSC was increased from 17.7 to 19.3 mA cm2, the PCE was increased from

3 12.06 to 13.14 %, and had good super-hydrophobicity. In addition, as shown in Fig.
4 21c, after 200 bends, 96 % of the initial value is retained, and stable photoelectric
5 performance can be maintained. In 2016, Park et al.148 obtained a moth-eye TiO2

6 mesoporous layer by means of shape-forming and nanoimprinting techniques using a
7 moth-eye microstructure as a template, as shown in Fig. 22a-b. Compared with the
8 ordinary TiO2 mesoporous layer, the light absorption was significantly enhanced due
9 to the large pores of the moth-eye structure, and the PCE of PSC increased from
10 15.31 % to 17.48 %.
11 In addition, the 2D porous perovskite films can control the crystallinity by
12 controlling the concentration of the precursor solution and the pores of the film in the
13 PSCs. Benefitting from adjusting the energy level of the films, ensuring optical
14 performance and further functionalization, a colorful and efficient PSC device can be
15 obtained. Chen et al.85 used a 2D IO perovskite photonic film to achieve a colorful
16 device with a PCE of 11.2 %. This structure can enhance light trapping and inhibit
17 potential contact between the electron and hole transport layers, thereby increasing the
18 photovoltaic performance of the device. Due to the color diversity of the IO film, the
19 device exhibits a variety of colors visible to the naked eye,149 as shown in Fig. 23a-b.
20 Recently, the Snaith et al93 obtained the HC structure through the template. The
21 application of 2D-PCs increased the open circuit voltage and the fill factor, resulting
22 in a PCE of 10.3 % and an AVT of 38 %.
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1 In summary, the introduction of the PCs ensures that the PSCs can diversify the
2 color of the devices while maintaining the high efficiency. There is no report on the

3 application of 3D-PCs to PSCs until now. In the future, the device structure can be
4 further designed and optimized to solve the contradiction between color and efficiency,
5 which will promote the research of PSCs.

7 4.3 The DSSCs based on PCs
8 DSSCs are one of the third generation PVCs based on low-cost nano-titanium
9 dioxide and photosensitive dyes. It has the advantages of the simple production
10 process, no pollution, long service life, and low cost. It is also a new type of solar
11 cells with intensely broad commercial prospect, so how to improve the low PCE of
12 DSSCs is the focus of research. Further improvement of light absorption is still the
13 challenging problem due to the influence of the thickness of the active layer and the
14 limitation of illumination conditions.
16 The periodic structure of 1D-PCs causes the PCs and the gap between the crystal
17 layers to be exceeding dense, and the liquid electrolyte and dye are not sufficiently
18 penetrated therein, which results in the restriction of the device PCE. Therefore, there
19 is not many researches on the DSSCs based on 1D-PCs. Miguéz et al.150 used
20 TiO2/SiO2 nanoparticles to prepare multilayer PCs which is shown in Fig. 24a-c.
21 DSSCs with a PCE of 4.6 % was obtained by using the resonant cavity generated
22 between PCs and dye nc-TiO2 electrode with the slow Bloch mode of PCs. However,
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1 as an insulating nanoparticle, SiO2 severely limits charge transport. Therefore, the
2 Miguéz group151 changed the strategy to prepare 1D-PCs using TiO2, improved device

3 performance by adjusting the size of the TiO2 nanoparticles, the porosity between the
4 PC layers, and the concentration of the precursor solution, so that the PCE was
5 increased by 45 %. However, the device performance still does not meet the
6 requirements, so the research is turned to 2D-PCs and 3D-PCs.
9 The application of TiO2 nanotube based 2D-PCs to semitransparent DSSCs as
10 photoanodes is an effective way to improve device performance. Utilizing the high
11 specific surface area of TiO2 nanotubes, the Bragg reflection of PCs and the
12 interference effect of light, the light trapping ability of DSSCs is greatly improved. As
13 a result, the photocurrent is enhanced dramatically.
14 Guo et al.152 used a current pulse to prepare a non-periodic TiO2 nanotube PC as
15 photoanodes which achieved almost all visible spectrum of light, resulting in a
16 photocurrent increase of 27.01 % and a PCE of 7.87 %. Then, Huang et al.153 used
17 anodic oxidation to seamlessly bond TiO2 nanotubes to DSSCs, making it possible to
18 block the gap between the two electrodes and increase the fill factor, resulting in a 50 %
19 increase in device performance, as shown in Fig. 25a. Subsequently, the current pulse
20 is used again to obtain the coupling of TiO2 nanotubes and nc-TiO2 layer to form a
21 double-layer photoanodes, which plays a role of PC effect and light scattering. Due to
22 the selective reflection of PCs, the value of PCE is inextricably linked to the
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1 wavelengthes. When the maximum absorption peak of the dye molecule matches the
2 maximum value of PC reflection, PCE produces the largest enhancement (39.5 %),154

3 as shown in Fig. 25b.
4 Since the cosine law of the incident angle affects the incident intensity of light,
5 when the light deviates from the normal, the output power of the DSSCs will decrease.
6 Therefore, how to reduce the dependence of the DSSCs on the angle of the incident
7 light is also a major problem to improve efficiency. In 2014, Guo et al.77 used TiO2
8 NP layer and TiO2 NT PC thin layer formed PCs as photoanode in DSSCs. When the
9 light is incident at an angle, the Bragg mirror will be blue-shifted, forming more
10 overlap with the dye absorption peak and resulting in higher efficiency, which is
11 shown in Fig. 25c. When the Bragg peak does not coincide with the dye absorption,
12 since the TiO2 nanotubes are vertically aligned, the photocurrent compensation effect
13 is mainly caused by the scattering effect of NTs. This helps the PC structures
14 compensate for the energy loss in this case and reduces the angular dependence of the
15 DSSCs.
16 Subsequently, with a view to the limitations of lighting conditions in practical
17 applications, Guo et al76 further changed the lattice constant and film thickness to
18 improve the PCE under low photon flux conditions. As the intensity of the
19 illumination decreases, the carrier density is lower, the VOC is increased and the FF is
20 decreased. Under the illumination of 50 mW cm-2, the PCE is 5.03 %. With the
21 deepening of research, Guo et al.75 recently proposed to apply TiO2 nanotube PC layer
22 and Au nanoparticle as photoanodes in DSSCs, which can significantly enhance light
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1 trapping due to the PC effect and the surface plasmon resonance effect of AuDOI:
NP. 10.1039/C8TC05461D
As
2 shown in Fig.26a-b, when the surface plasmon of Au NP is optimally matched with

3 the band gap of PC, the value of the maximum JSC is obtained, at which time the PCE
4 reaches 5.63 %.
5 The introduction of 2D-PCs overlaps the Bragg peak with the dye absorption peak,
6 causing an increase in DSSCs PCE. To further optimize device performance, dyes
7 need to be more fully penetrated, so researchers have further applied 3D-PCs with
8 large pores to DSSCs.
11 In addition to the distinctive properties of PCs, 3D-PCs have a large number of
12 interconnected pores, which can provide more carriers from the sensitizer and fully
13 penetrate the dye. PCs can also produce enough coherent diffraction phenomenons,
14 which is beneficial to the improvement of device performance. In addition, due to the
15 forbidden band stored in the PCs, a resonance mode can be generated at the interface
16 to enhance light absorption, so it is widely used in DSSCs.
17 Mallouk et al.155 applied 3D-PCs to DSSCs in 2003, achieving a 26 % current
18 increase and demonstrating that 3D-PC play a positive role in improving DSSC
19 performance. Subsequently, Miguéz et al.156 applied 3D IO as a single-layer
20 photoanode in DSSCs. Due to the reflection effect of PCs on photons in the forbidden
21 band, the sensitizer could not absorb enough photons, resulting in a decrease in PCE.
22 When PCs combined with dyed TiO2, PCE was significantly heightened, and it was
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1 concluded that PCs should work with other structures to enhance DSSCs performance.
2 Soon afterwards, Hwang et al.157 optimized the DSSCs of the traditional sandwich

3 structure, 3D-PCs were prepared on the back side of the cathode using vertical
4 deposition techniques. Due to the coherent scattering phenomenon of PCs, the light
5 reflected by the anode can be absorbed twice. When the reflection peak of PC matches
6 the absorption peak of the dye, the light absorption in the long wavelength range can
7 be enhanced, and the PCE is obtained as 10.8 %, as shown in Fig. 27a. Further
8 research led to a two-layer DSSC consisting of an nc-TiO2 layer and a TiO2 IO PC
9 layer,158 as shown in Fig. 27b. The combination of the two forms a resonance mode,
10 confining light to TiO2 NP, and the dye is fully infiltrated with photons to obtain 8.2 %
11 of PCE, which is 50 % higher than that of the single-layer photoanode device, as
12 shown in Fig. 27c. It was found in the experiment that the morphology and
13 sensitization degree of PCs had no effect on the resonance mode, but only related to
14 the thickness of the nc-TiO2 layer158,159 and the PCs scattering intensity. It was
15 observed that the application of the PCs can greatly improve the selection and design
16 of DSSCs.
17 The application of 3D-IO-PCs with a single aperture to DSSCs has been reported
18 many times in decade. In 2015, Jung Woo Lee and Jun Hyuk Moon160 first proposed a
19 DSSC with a dual layer of 3D-IO-PC electrode with different pore diameters. The
20 maximum JSC was 13.98 mA cm-2 and the PEC was 6.46 %. The double-layer
21 3D-IO-PC structure of the device is shown in Fig. 28, in which the macro-pore layer
22 is a TiO2 IO structure with a pore diameter of 250 nm (photon band gap of 680 nm),
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1 and the mesopore layer is an IO structure with a pore size of 70 nm (photon band gap
2 of 90 nm). The absorption peak of dye N719 is 580nm, while that of dye N719 is

3 weak at 680nm. since PGB is 680nm, photons can be efficiently captured and the
4 absorption of dye is enhanced. Recently, Reiss et al.93 reported the application of a
5 synthetic mesoporous TiO2 nanostructured 3D-PCs to DSSC photoelectrodes. At the

6 time of preparation, SiO2 is removed after etching, and the specific surface area is
7 increased to form mesopores 3D-IO, and the load of the reinforcing dye acts as a
8 scattering and sensitizing layer. After sensitizing the photoelectrode with the organic
9 dye YKP88, the maximum PCE value was 10.35 %, which was increased by 17 %
10 compared with the standard electrode. The efficiency was increased by 12 % after
11 sensitization with the anthraquinone dye N719. The detailed PV parameters are shown
12 in Table 1, which is the maximum value currently obtained using the IOP structure.
13 It can be seen that 3D-PCs are widely used in DSSCs due to its distinctive
14 properties, and have achieved considerable performance improvement. In the future,
15 the optimization of DSSC materials and structures can be further explored. The
16 current research lays a solid foundation for the development of DSSCs.
17
18 5. Summary and Outlook
19 All in all, PC-based the third-generation PVCs have demonstrated excellent device
20 performance. This review summarizes the preparation methods of PCs with different
21 dimensions and the photovoltaic properties of PC-based the third-generation PVCs.
22 As a periodic structure, PCs have intrinsic properties such as Bragg effect, optical
42
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1 interference, coherent diffraction, etc. They can also have the advantagesDOI:of10.1039/C8TC05461D
(1)
2 selective response to the spectrum, ensuring device transparency, (2) reducing the

3 angle-dependent compensation of cosine loss and enhance light absorption, (3) flatten
4 and enhance the transmission spectrum to make the color clear, and (4) have large
5 specific surface area and porosity to improve the performance of PVCs. However,
6 there are still two major problems with PCE and color characteristics for practical
7 applications of PC-based third-generation PVCs. On the one hand, the PCE of some
8 PVCs still lag behind that of commercial inorganic silicon cells, which limits the
9 application of PVCs. In response to this situation, great efforts should be devoted to
10 further light harvest, and pay more attention to the method of introducing PCs and
11 other light management into PVCs at the same time, such as the strategy of combining
12 PCs and plasmas mentioned in this paper. One the other hand, the application of BIPV
13 requires PVC to have considerable color characteristics. However, the charge
14 transport properties of PVCs limit the thin active layer, which affects the color
15 adjustability of PVCs. Therefore, tremendous efforts should be devoted to developing
16 methods to solve the imbalance between color and photocurrent, focusing on the
17 further development of optical management technologies such as PCs, researching the
18 diversity of PC structures and materials, designing and optimizing PVC structures. It
19 can be expected that PC-based third-generation PVCs will have an indispensable
20 impact on the commercial application of PVCs in the future.
21 In addition, except for the PC structure, Alejandro W. Rodriguez et al.161-163 also
22 used inverse design techniques to enhance the performance of a given device. This
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1 reverse inverse techniques have been widely used in nonlinear, topological, near-field,
2 and integrated optics. Therefore, in the future, it is possible to extend the inverse

3 design technique to PVCs to enhance light capture, which may be an effective method
4 to improve the performance of PVCs.
5
6 Acknowledgement: The authors are grateful to National Natural Science Foundation
7 of China (61875072), International Cooperation and Exchange Project of Jilin
8 Province (20170414002GH, 20180414001GH) for the support to the work.
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2 Fig. 1 The schematic diagram of 1D-PC, 2D-PC, 3D-PC
4 Fig. 2 (a) Photograph of experimentally obtained 1D-PC with different thicknesses,51
5 (b) Evolution of the Bragg peak position with the final rotation speed and ramp stage
6 acceleration used in the spin-coating process.52
8 Fig. 3 (a) The relationship between specular reflection spectrum and 1D-PC of
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1 N-layer SiO2/TiO2.53 (b) The relationship between the 1D-PC of the N-cycle of
2 LiF/WO3 and the reflection and absorption obtained from the experiment.54

4 Fig. 4 Two PC tablet structures (a) self-standing membrane or air bridge and (b)
5 silicon-on-insulator (SOI). 45 (c) the main light absorbing structure of thin-plate solar cells.58,59
6
7 Fig. 5 (a) Cross section of electric field distribution when plane wave is incident on PFP, Light
8 trapping in a PFP (b) on an isolated fiber and (c) on an array of intercalated fibers. (d) The chaotic
9 character in the photon trajectory is schematically shown by considering slightly different incident
10 positions rapidly leading to completely distinct paths. Here a change in the incidence corresponds
11 to a lateral displacement of the ray without any angle change. Note that inside the fourth fiber, ray
12 trajectory 1 follows a regular sequences of reflections akin to whispering gallery modes until
13 crossing the gap connecting the fourth with the third fibers, at which point it undergoes a sudden
14 change in reflection angle ∆β ≠ 0.(e)Measured EQE of a PFP organic solar cell (green)
60
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05461D
1 compared with a planar one (red line).60

3 Fig. 6 The relationship between the sphere diameter and the reflection spectrum of IO
4 PC is obtained experimentally. The inset shows the relationship between the Bragg
5 diffraction peak and the diameter of the sphere.62
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2 Fig.7 (a) PC deposited directly on the top electrode, (b) PC and Ag electrode
3 cross-section scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, 67 (c) PC deposited on the
4 bottom of the cell,70 and (d) PC structure in series.72
6 Fig. 8 Nanoimprint flow chart.84
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2 Fig.9 (a) Microlens array schematic, 82 (b) picture of the device used to make the PFP
3 and (c) Description of the preparation process.60
4
85
5 Fig.10 (a) Preparation IO PC flow chart and (b) Preparation of two-dimensional
6 HC.87
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1
45
2 Fig. 11 (a) Prepare 3D IO PC flow chart and (b) 3D IO TiO2 PC flow chart on
3 non-planar electrode. 93
5 Fig.12 (a) Reflectance spectra of 1DPCs and the IPCE spectrum of device, (b)
6 Transmittance spectra of 1DPCs and (c) IPCE characteristics. 16
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1
2 Fig. 13 (a) DC and CCT of different pairs of 1DPC under irradiation of an AM 1.5G
3 illumination source. The dotted horizontal line marks DC = 0.0054. (b) CRI of TCS.
4 (c) The average CRI of the equipment. (d) Total transmittance spectra of different
5 devices with N pairs 1D-PC and (e) Representation of the color coordinates of the
6 STPSC devices with N pairs of 1DPC under AM 1.5G illumination light source on the
7 CIE 1931 color space.19
9 Fig.14 (a) Total transmission spectrum with N pairs of 1DPC devices, top left image
10 is 3 pairs of 1DPCs and original photo background,54 (b) simultaneous introduction of
11 plasma and PC device structure, (c) J-V characteristics of devices C and F-H with the
12 same plasma ratio and different PC center wavelengths under AM1.5G conditions, the
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1 illustrations show the different colors of the device.66

3 Fig. 15 (a) OSC structure image including 1D-PC composed of PEDOT: PSS grating
4 and Ag grating, (b) and (c) absorption spectra of devices with active layers P3HT:
5 PCBM and TDPTD: PCBM, respectively.84
7 Fig. 16 (a) J-V characteristics and (b) transmission spectra of ST-OSC based on
8 bottom 1D-PC and top solution treated PEDOT: PSS layer.70
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2 Fig. 17 (a) Effect of microlens spacing at the air-glass interface on device weighted
3 absorption and JSC.82 (b) OSC of 2D-PC based on hexagonal grid absorbs the variation
4 of gain in the range of 400-680nm.84
6 Fig. 18 (a) structure diagram and (b) cross-sectional SEM image of the porous 1D-PC
7 based on SiO2/TiO2 composition, (c) color displayed by devices with different PCs
8 (from blue to red).135
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2 Fig. 19 Schematic diagram of 1D-PC structure prepared by PVD-OAD, (a)(b) is PC1
3 structure, (c) (d) is PC2 structure, and (e) (f) is PC3 structure.73
5 Fig. 20 (a) PSC structure with 2D-PC, (b) illustrates a cross-sectional view of the
6 2D-PC cycle, active layer and anode thickness, (c) The photon structure and plane
7 control the absorption spectrum of the PSC, and the corresponding absorption
8 enhancement spectrum. Three enhanced peaks are marked. PSC based on IOP-500
9 and IOP-1000 MAPbI3.91
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2 Fig. 21 (a) A J-V measurement of devices with and without PDMS nano-cone film
3 (inset image is the schematic of light scattering in the device with a nano-cone layer),
4 (b) The relationship between the different aspect ratios and the static contact angle of
5 the water on the PDMS layer. The inset shows that when AR: 1.0, the maximum
6 contact angle is 155° and (c) Changes in FF, JSC, VOC, PCE during 200 bending. 147
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2 Fig. 22 Schematic (a) illustrations of preparing silicon master and (b) patterning
3 mesoporous TiO2 layer with conical shaped moth-eye structures. (c) J-V
4 characteristics (d) EQE and JSC images of PSC based on flat TiO2 and moth-eye
5 TiO2.148
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2 Fig. 23 PSC based on IOP-500 and IOP-1000 MAPbI3 (a) forward biased to
3 short-circuited J-V characteristics, inset for digital photographs and (b) IPCE
4 spectra.85
6 Fig. 24 DSSC based on porous nanoparticle-based 1D-PC (a) Schematic diagram of
7 frontal illumination, cross-sectional SEM image of (b) dye-sensitized nc-TiO2
8 electrode and (c) of a layer of SiO2 and TiO2 layers constituting 1D-PC.150
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1
2 Fig. 25 (a) J-V characteristics of AM 1.5 sunlight. The purple and green lines
3 represent the PC layer axial lattice parameters of ~150 and ~190 nm, and the number
4 of cycles is 30 and 20, respectively, and the corresponding HC pulse durations are 28
5 and 40 s, respectively. The purple 1 and purple 2 dye loadings are slightly different.
6 The reference device differs only in the PC layer.153 (b) The J-V characteristics of a 10
7 mm thick dye-sensitized TiO2 NP electrode coupled with different thicknesses of TiO2
8 NT PC and TiO2 NT, the thickness of the reference electrode is about 12 mm.154 (c)
9 Relationship between different device angles and JSC enhancement.76
10
11 Fig. 26 (a) Absorption spectra of TiO2 NT, Au NPs / TiO2 NT and Au NPs / TiO2
12 NTPC devices, (b) absorption spectrum enhancement of Au NPs / TiO2 NT and Au
13 NPs / TiO2 NTPC, absorption spectrum of N719 dye and reflection spectrum of TiO2
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1 NT / NTPC, the illustration is a digital photo of TiO2 NT / NTPC.76

3 Fig. 27 (a) J-V characteristics of DSSC in which 3D-PC and Ag film are combined
4 under one sun irradiation,157 (b) a DSSC structure diagram containing 3D-PC, and (c)
5 J-V characteristics of solar cells fabricated using different structures.158
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2 Fig. 28 Schematic image of the bilayer IO layer.160
3 Table 1 Photovoltaic parameters (maximum performance and average, standard
4 deviation over five devices) for DSSC devices with photoelectrodes fabricated using
5 different mesoporous 3D-IO and sensitized with dye YKP-88.
photoanodes JSC (mA cm-2) VOC (V) FF (%) PCE (%)
Mesoporous 3D-IO TiO2(3 19.64 0.72 69.5 9.86
mol % SiO2 removed) 19.52±0.12 0.72± 68.9±0.06 9.81±0.05
0.02
mol % SiO2 removed):P25 18.62±0.11 0.73± 70.3±0.4 9.59±0.03
NPs=3:1 0.02
mol % SiO2 removed) 19.55±0.40 0.74± 70.7±0.8 10.21±0.3
0.01
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mol % SiO2 removed):P25 18.89±0.15 0.73± 69.0±0.1 9.49±0.09

NPs=3:1 0.01

mol % SiO2 removed) 18.89±0.21 0.73± 68.8±0.4 9.46±0.08
0.01
mol % SiO2 removed):P25 18.67±0.17 0.75± 69.0±0.8 9.35±0.05
NPs=3:1 0.02
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Structural design, physical mechanism and device performance DOI:

of 10.1039/C8TC05461D
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third-generation photovoltaic cells based on photonic crystals were reviewed.


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2 Junshi Liu, Mengnan Yao, Liang Shen*

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

6 Abstract: The third-generation photovoltaic cells (PVCs) represented by organic

12 by photonic crystals (PCs) facing to the third-generation PVCs is considered to be one

16 or photoanodes to intentionally enhance light trapping and color features. Creatively,

17 the third-generation PVCs based on different dimensions of PCs have been

18 demonstrated by various methods and achieved excellent photovoltaic performance.

19 This review provides a comprehensive and detailed summary of PC-based

20 third-generation PVCs in structure design, physical mechanism and device

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Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

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Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

4 2. The physical mechanism of PCs in the third-generation OPVs

5 2.1 The physical mechanism of 1D-PCs in the third-generation OPVs

6 2.2 The physical mechanism of 2D-PCs in the third-generation OPVs

7 2.3 The physical mechanism of 3D-PCs in the third-generation OPVs

8 3 Application and preparation process of PCs

9 3.1 Application and preparation process of 1D-PCs

10 3.2 Application and preparation process of 2D-PCs

11 3.3 Application and preparation process of 3D-PCs

12 4 The third-generation photovoltaic cells based on PCs

13 4.1 The OSCs based on PCs

14 4.1.1 The OSCs with top 1D-PCs

15 4.1.2 The OSCs with internal 1D-PCs

16 4.1.3 The OSCs with bottom 1D-PCs

17 4.1.4 The OSCs based on 2D-PCs

18 4.2 The PSCs based on PCs

19 4.2.1 The PSCs based on 1D-PCs

20 4.2.2 The PSCs based on 2D-PCs

21 4.3 The DSSCs based on PCs

22 4.3.1 The DSSCs based on 1D-PCs

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2 4.3.3 The DSSCs based on 3D-PCs

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

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2 With the emerging environmental deterioration and energy consumption throughout

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

6 developed persistently,6 the third-generation photovoltaic cells (PVCs) have attracted

8 lightweight, solution-processed fabrication, and high flexibility. As a result, the

13 materials, which can be intentionally designed to meet specific applications by

14 adjusting the electronic and optical properties.7-10 As an example, retractable OSCs,11

15 photonic filter integrated OSCs,12-14 semi-transparent (ST)-OSCs,15-22 etc., which can

16 be applied on flexible wearable devices, building photovoltaics (BIPV), automotive

18 actual applications, PVCs are required to have considerable power conversion

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Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript

5 investigated to improve light absorption, definitely including photonic crystals (PCs),

6 microcavity structure, and plasmonic nanostructures. Among the proposed light

7 management methods, in particular, PCs based on advantageous optical properties

12 we provide an overview of the research progress of the third-generation PVCs based

14 third-generation PVCs based on PCs with different dimensions (one-dimensional PC

15 (1D-PCs),26 two-dimensional PC (2D-PCs)27 and three-dimensional PC (3D-PCs)).28

18 to the future development of PC-based the third-generation PVCs.

20 2. The physical mechanism of PCs in the third-generation OPVs

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2 communications,34-36 and other fields.

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Accepted Manuscript