FS-Laser-Based Technology Creates Solar Power Generators

A University of Rochester research team has demonstrated that the laser-based technology it used to create unsinkable metallic structures can also be used to create highly efficient solar power generators. The researchers used femtosecond (fs) laser pulses to etch metal surfaces with nanoscale structures that selectively absorb light only at the solar wavelengths. The etched surface not only enhances the energy absorption from sunlight, but also reduces heat dissipation at other wavelengths, in effect, “making a perfect metallic solar absorber for the first time,” professor Chunlei Guo said. Using femtosecond lasers to etch metallic structures, University of Rochester Institute of Optics professor Chunlei Guo and...