Unlocking High-Efficiency in Low-Mobility Materials: A Bio-Inspired Photovoltaic Nano-architecture for Integrated Light Funneling and Convergent Charge Collection

The performance of a vast class of low-cost, solution-processed semiconductors is limited by the thickness competition: where the optical requirement for a thick absorber conflict with the electronic necessity of a short charge collection path. To overcome this, we introduce and computationally validate a novel, bio-inspired photovoltaic architecture that achieves concerted light funneling and charge collection. Inspired by the monolithic ocular system of the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii, the nanophotonic-nanoelectronic architecture integrates a light-concentrating microlens with an embedded nanoscopic collection contact. This geometry induces a new charge transport model, convergent drift, by creating a powerful, radially-converging electric field that actively funnels photogenerated carriers to the collection point. Through multi-physics modeling, we provide strong evidence of this mechanism; the architecture enforces drift-dominated transport, locally suppresses nonradiative recombination, and dynamically passivates bulk defects via trap saturation. The result is a PCE of 26.31% in a 1.2 µm thick absorber, supported by a Fill Factor of 79.79% that confirms the elimination of transport losses. Critically, the architecture exhibits unprecedented robustness to poor material quality, maintaining high efficiency at carrier mobilities and lifetimes where a conventional planar device fails, opening a viable pathway for developing ultra-high-efficiency solar cells from electronically imperfect materials.