RESEARCH
April 20, 2009

Material tunes light for solar cells

Tune light by splitting a high-energy photon into two lower-energy photons and you can boost solar cell efficiency.

Paired praseodymium and ytterbium ions split each blue/green photon into two near-infrared photons. Lower-energy photons more readily convert to electricity in solar cells.

Researchers have been working on the photon splitting and other spectral conversion techniques to increase the efficiency of solar cells. The praseodymium-ytterbium material splits photons more efficiently than other techniques.

Research paper:
Near-Infrared Quantum Cutting for Photovoltaics
Advanced Materials, published online April 20, 2009

Researchers' contact:
Andries Meijerink


Back to ERN April 20, 2009

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