Direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) is used to fabricate large area, two-dimensional periodic surface patterns on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates to enhance the performance of ZnPc:C60 solar cells by light concentration in the absorber layer. Comparing the power conversion efficiencies to the reference cell on flat PET, a relative increase of 21% is observed for the hexagonal pattern with 0.7 μm period, depicted in the figure.

Substrate topography can have profound effects on initial bacterial adhesion during biofilm formation. We applied Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli cells onto periodically structured substrates with different structure dimensions, structure types and wetting properties. We found a strong dependence of cell retention on the structure dimensions of the applied substrates. Periodicities in the range of the cell size increased, whereas smaller periodicities decreased cell retention, independent of contact time (minutes to hours) and hydrophobicity. These novel insights on the role of surface topography on bacterial retention might facilitate the development of non-fouling surfaces in the future.