I would think that they would have an issue with polarization and wavelength.
Broad band of wavelengths in sunlight at random polarizations. I guess mini
bow tie antennas could handle the broadband part. I wonder what the electric
field strength is of sunlight. If it was not high enough it would not be
rectifiable.
From: Bill Prince
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2018 3:09 PM
To: AFMUG
Subject: [AFMUG] OT: Solar panel efficiency
Most of you know this, but current technology silicon solar panels are near
their peak efficiency at 20-25 % efficiency. There is a speculated peak
efficiency of around 29%, but we have no idea whether we can reach it or not.
The big issue is that only a fraction of the photons that hit the silicon
substrate get electrons to move (they create electron holes in fact).
However... What if we approach the energy conversion a different way. We know
from college (high school?) physics that light can be treated as particles
(photons), but it can also be treated as electromagnetic waves. What if we
could build tiny antennas that were sensitive to these waves? What could we get
for efficiency then? These folks think they could get 90% efficiency, and
they've already demonstrated > 40% efficiency. Carbon nano-tubes.
Article 1
Article 2
--
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
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