PV Cell Prototype Generates Electricity from IR and UV Light
Recently scientists at the Kyoto Institute of Technology have deviated from the normal path and tried to trap the visible as well as invisible rays of sun for electricity. They tried to create a new photovoltaic cell that can capture visible, infrared and ultraviolet light of the sun. The team now thinks that this photovoltaic will be highly efficient for solar power conversion.
These new PV cells were made up of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor. This new photovoltaic cell is created by ‘doping’ a wide bandgap transparent composite semiconductor i.e. gallium nitride (GaN) with a 3d transition metal such as manganese. Gallium belongs to the family of scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc. Sonoda explained that his team has gone for those additive elements. He said that even aluminum nitride (AlN), which has a very large bandgap, can possibly have an absorbing region in the visible light range,
