Plasmonic absorbers turn a corner

Published in Physics World, 9 Nov 2011

A new nanostructure that can absorb light at any polarization and across the entire visible spectrum has been made by physicists in the US. The “plasmonic” structure has been used to convert absorbed light into heat and might be able to improve the efficiency of solar cells.

Solar cells may be a tempting green-energy technology, but they remain much less cost-effective than fossil-fuel energy. Most of the high cost of solar cells resides in the production cost of silicon – the most commonly used semiconductor. For this reason, industry is interested in solar cells made of far thinner films – around 1 µm, rather than 300 µm – so that less material is required. […]

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