Solar cells based on wide-band-gap semiconductors work better under water than the narrow-band-gap ones used in conventional silicon photovoltaic devices. This finding by researchers at New York ...

However, this would only be possible by using wide-band-gap semiconductors, ... a light filter matching the band-gap of your silicon PV cells. Nobody will do that, ...

An electron in its rest state cannot be excited into usefulness unless it receives enough excess energy to jump right over this band gap. Silicon has a nice, achievable band gap, one that can be ...

“The photons above the band-gap of the cell are efficiently absorbed in the micron-thick semiconductor while those below the band-gap are reflected back to the silicon emitter and recycled ...

Find out how solar cells power a good portion of homes today—and how they might power almost everything in the future.

This is used in the solar sector in the development of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. The band gap is crucial because it establishes the part of the solar spectrum a photovoltaic cell absorbs.

Thin-film solar cells made with amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or organic semiconductors are considered as promising renewable energy sources due to their low manufacturing cost and light weight.

Silicon is the material of choice for visible light photodetection and solar cell fabrication. However, due to the intrinsic band gap properties of silicon, most infrared photons are energetically ...

These days, the best silicon solar cells are creeping towards 27 per cent efficiency. That seems pretty low, but don't diss the efforts of chemists and physicists — these tiny gains are a big deal.

Think of a pane of glass with a photovoltaic frame. The end result, at this stage, is a very inefficient solar collector. Blue light generates infrared light with an efficiency of about 180 percent.