Light-Splitting Trick Squeezes More Electricity Out of Sun's Rays
Solar Energy - Journal ArticleAuthor: Kintisch, Eli
Author Affiliation: Science Magazine
Submitted: Thu, 07/10/2008 - 17:51
Published in: Science Magazine on August 3rd, 2007
Copyright Status: Pay to Download Link to source material: Full Article Here Description:
In the quest to create highly efficient solar cells, researchers with the Department of Defense have developed a light-splitting technique that could boost cell efficiency to 42%. The technique uses a dichroic mirror to direct wavelength-filtered photons towards separate, and otherwise un-combinable semiconductors of indium gallium phosphide and indium gallium arsenide. The optical mirror is much more efficient than the "rainbow cell" created by NASA in the 1970's, and can separate the wavelengths of incoming photons with 93% efficiency.
While initial lab results are promising, the commercialization of such a technology will be capital intensive. However, the Deleware based research team has received a $100 million investment from DuPont to build prototype devices.
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