Breakthroughs in Photonics 2012: Large-Area Ultrathin Photonics

Recent work is reviewed on organic solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk, so flexible that they can be wrapped firmly around a human hair, lighter than autumn leaves and with an unprecedented specific weight of 10 W/g. Solar cell fabrication is based on planar process technologies only, commonly employed in semiconductor industry. The same weight per area and exceptional flexibility should easily be achievable also in organic light-emitting diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits, to realize unbreakable ultrathin electronics. When adhered on conforming surfaces, the solar cells become stretch compatible withstanding tensile strains of roughly 400%. Applications of the technology may arise wherever mass is a critical concern and span from small scale robots to health care and biomedical systems.