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Hamamatsu Corp. - Earth Innovations LB 2/24

Exotic Form of Silicon Improves Solar Cells

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DAVIS, Calif., Jan. 30, 2013 — An exotic form of silicon may improve solar cell efficiency by as much as 70 percent, according to computer simulations conducted by an international team of scientists. Solar cells are based on the photoelectric effect: a photon hits a silicon crystal and generates a negatively charged electron and a positively charged hole. Collecting those electron-hole pairs generates electric current. Conventional photovoltaics generate one electron-hole pair per incoming photon, and theoretically have a maximum efficiency of 33 percent. But now, researchers at the University of California,...Read full article

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    Published: January 2013
    Glossary
    nano
    An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
    AmericasBasic ScienceBudapest University of Technology and EconomicsenergyEuropeGergely ZimanyiGiulia Galligreen photonicsHungarynanonanoparticlesResearch & Technologysolar cell efficiencysolar cellsStefan WippermannUniversity of California Davis

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