Tel Aviv University's Department of Physical Electronics and its innovative new Renewable Energy Center are now developing a solar panel composed of nano-antennas instead of semiconductors. By adapting classic metallic antennas to absorb light waves at optical frequencies, a much higher conversion rate from light into useable energy could be achieved. Such efficiency, combined with a lower material cost, would mean a cost-effective way to harvest and utilize "green" energy.
Traditionally, detectors based on semiconducting materials like silicon are used to interface with light, while radio waves are captured by antenna. For optimal absorption, the antenna dimensions must correspond to the light's very short wavelength. Initial tests indicate that 95 percent of the wattage going into the antenna comes out, meaning that only five percent is wasted.
The solar spectrum is very broad with UV or infrared rays ranging from ten microns to less than two hundred nanometers. No semiconductor can handle this broad a spectrum, and they absorb only a fraction of the available energy. A group of antennas, however, can be manufactured in different lengths with the same materials and process, exploiting the entire available spectrum of light.
When finished, the team's new solar panels will be large sheets of plastic which, with the use of a nano-imprinting lithography machine, will be imprinted with varying lengths and shapes of metallic antennas.
Solar sees innovations every day, and that despite disappointing news like the cut in feed in tariff in UK which has many householders vexed about their plans to generate energy at home.
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