A novel methodology was implemented in the present study to concurrently control power conversion efficiency (η) and durability (D) of co-sensitized dye solar cells. Applying response surface methodology (RSM) and Desirability Function (DF), the main influential assembling (dye volume ratio and anti-aggregation agent concentration) and operational (performance temperature) parameters were systematically changed to probe their main and interactive effects on the η and D responses. Individual optimization based on RSM elucidated that D can be solely controlled by changing the ratio of vat-based organic photosensitizers, whereas η takes both effects of dye volume ratio and anti-aggregation concentration into account. Among the studied factors, the performance temperature played the most vital role in η and D regulation. In particular, however, multi-objective optimization by DF explored the degree to which one should be careful about manipulation of assembling and operational parameters in the way maximization of performance of a co-sensitized dye solar cell.

Performance parameter of a Bragg fiber waveguide based resonant sensor in presence of a defect layer in cladding regions is theoretically studied. The Bragg fiber waveguide consists of a liquid-core surrounded by alternate high and low refractive indices materials in cladding regions. Reflectivity of the proposed waveguide based resonant sensor is formulated using transfer matrix method for a non-homogeneous multilayer cylindrical system. The waveguide shows a band gap region with a narrow defect mode in the band gap region under the considered wavelength range. Instead of taking a whole band gap as a sensing signal, here the defect peak is taken as the sensing signal. It is observed that the intensity of defect mode is more sensitive for core refractive index than the intensity of traditional band gap region (lobe). This study shows that the higher sensitivity can be achieved by creating the defect at a position in cladding region where the intensity of transmitted light lies between 40% and 90%. Presence of a defect layer is able to increase the detection accuracy of the sensor and, hence increase the overall performance of this sensor.