The optical and photovoltaic properties of a photovoltaic cell with a structure of indium-tin oxide (ITO)/double ZnO/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PAT6):PCBM/Ag have been investigated. The double layer ZnO was a composite of a sputtered ZnO layer and oriented zinc oxide nanopillars layer which was fabricated by a new method at low temperature (343 K). It is concluded that the double layer ZnO plays an important role in collecting photogenerated electrons and acts as a conducting path to the electrode. Insertion of the double layer ZnO in the photovoltaic cells produced enhanced performance with the power conversion efficiency of 1.42% under AM1.5 illumination. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.