http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_030603.asp Cheap Solar Power on Deck Technology Research News March 6, 2003 Solar cells are relatively pricey largely because the silicon they are made from is expensive to manufacture ÷ it requires a clean room or high vacuum. Solar cells harvest energy from light by capturing photons. The way silicon's electrons are arranged allows the material to absorb photons of visible light. The energy imparted by the photons excites the material's electrons, causing electricity to flow. University of California at Santa Barbara researchers have come up with a new type of solar cell that separates the process into two steps. The researchers' prototype suggests that the devices can be improved to be nearly as efficient as today's solar cells and would be more than order of magnitude cheaper to manufacture. Key to the design is ballistic transport, which shoots electrons straight through an extremely thin film of metal. In larger films or wires, electrons bounce around, losing energy. This efficiency allowed the researchers to use dye molecules to absorb light, then transport excited electrons to a semiconductor layer that is cheaper than silicon and can be much thinner than the crystalline silicon layers in most conventional solar cells. The work appeared in the February 6, 2003 issue of the journal Nature. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Yahoo! Web Hosting makes it easy to build a professional web site. Sign up today and get free set-up, domain name, and more (up to a $100 value) http://us.click.yahoo.com/m3JvCD/wCpFAA/46VHAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
