Silicon photcell
Department faculty Kimani Toussaint, Jr. and Nicholas Fang, along with Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Logan Liu, recently were awarded a 3-year grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a method for improving the light conversion efficiency for silicon photocells. The novelty in their approach is the use of arrays of metallic nano-scale antennas to convert the (longer) wavelengths of sunlight that are not detected by standard silicon photocells to wavelengths that would be more favorable to detection. The project is funded under the Energy, Power, and Adaptive Systems program in the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems division of the NSF.