full spectrum solar cell
:: unexpected discovery
A single system of alloys incorporating indium, gallium, and nitrogen can convert virtually
the full spectrum of sunlight-from the near infrared to the far ultraviolet-to electrical current.
What began as a basic research question points to a practical application of great potential
value. For if solar cells can be made with this alloy, they promise to be rugged, relatively
inexpensive-and the most efficient ever created. Wladek Walukiewicz and his colleagues (from
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Berkeley Lab -, a group at Cornell University headed
by William Schaff and a group at Japan's Ritsumeikan University headed by Yasushi Nanishi) were
studying not how semiconductors absorb light to create electrical power, but how they use electricity
to emit light.
"If it works, the cost should be on the same order of magnitude as traffic lights,"
Walukiewicz says. "Maybe less." Solar cells so efficient and so relatively cheap could
revolutionize the use of solar power not just in space but also on Earth. From *An
unexpected discovery could yield a full spectrum solar cell*, november 18, 2002.
related context
> energy for greenhouse planet:
towards a global energy system. november 13, 2002
> plastic spintronics:
from silicon to plastic based computers. october 1, 2002
> nanoparticles
used in solar energy conversion. august 9, 2002 |
