(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited ...
General Physics
Dec 15, 2011
47
0
A research team headed by chemists at the University of California, Irvine has discovered a previously unknown way in which light interacts with matter, a finding that could lead to improved solar power systems, light-emitting ...
Optics & Photonics
May 7, 2024
1
227
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 ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 15, 2010
45
0
Solar cells convert the sun's energy into electricity by converting photons into electrons. A new solar cell design could raise the energy conversion efficiency to over 50% by absorbing the spectral components of longer wavelengths ...
Energy & Green Tech
Apr 24, 2017
0
115
By some estimates, the amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the earth in one year is greater than the sum of all the energy we could ever produce using non-renewable resources. The technology necessary to convert ...
Materials Science
Dec 17, 2020
12
4256
Solar energy is a popular candidate for a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. A solar cell, or photovoltaic (PV) cell, converts sunlight directly into electricity. However, the conversion efficiency has not been enough ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 1, 2022
0
234
Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially ...
Energy & Green Tech
Aug 2, 2010
38
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- For millions of years, green plants have employed photosynthesis to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into electrochemical energy. A goal of scientists has been to develop an artificial version ...
Other
Mar 11, 2009
2
0
Dark matter, matter in the universe that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, cannot be directly detected using conventional telescopes or other imaging technologies. Astrophysicists have thus been trying to identify alternative ...
The quest to harness a broader spectrum of sunlight's energy to produce electricity has taken a radically new turn, with the proposal of a "solar energy funnel" that takes advantage of materials under elastic strain.
Optics & Photonics
Nov 26, 2012
3
3
