Recent advances in highly efficient organic-silicon hybrid solar cells

Organic-silicon hybrid solar cells (organic/Si HSCs) have drawn much attention in the development of modern low-cost photovoltaic solar cells. Due to simpler and less expensive fabrication processes at room temperature, the HSCs have many superiorities over conventional silicon solar cells, positioning the HSCs be a striking research topic. Recently, a significant amount of research has been done to improve the yield and efficiency of hybrid solar cells. The performance enhancement of hybrid solar cells highly depends on a combination of the electrical, optical, materials and structural aspects. This review is dedicated to the recent advances in the mechanism, fabrication processes and light management in organic/Si HSCs, highlighting the important device structures, the surface texturing, the transparent electrodes as well as the integration of metallic nanostructures to improve the performances of hybrid solar cells.