3-D nanocone solar cell technology cranks up efficiency

(PhysOrg.com) -- With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jun Xu has boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent.

New solar cell self-repairs like natural plant systems

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers are creating a new type of solar cell designed to self-repair like natural photosynthetic systems in plants by using carbon nanotubes and DNA, an approach aimed at increasing service life and ...

A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere

NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding ...

Making a Magnetic Moment in a Split Picosecond

(PhysOrg.com) -- A wide range of phenomena in nature and technology depend on changes that occur in a material after it is illuminated with visible light. A well-known example is photosynthesis, where successive excitations ...

IKAROS unfurls first ever solar sail in space

(PhysOrg.com) -- Japan's IKAROS has rolled out its solar sail, the first ever deployed in space. JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, achieved the feat by rotating the craft rapidly and spinning the sail out by centrifugal ...

Closing in on a carbon-based solar cell

To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have devised an unusual solution -- attach what amounts to a 3-D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. Using ...

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