Trapping Light: A “Perfect” Solar Absorber?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The news item from David L. Chandler at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claims that researchers there have come close to realizing the “ideal” for solar absorption, trapping and containing all of light’s wavelengths that reach earth’s surface from the sun.  This absorbed sunlight is converted to heat by a two-dimensional metallic dialectric photonic crystal, which can absorb sunlight from a wide range of angles and withstand extremely high temperatures.  Even better, it can be made cheaply and in large quantities, according to MIT. One aspect of the design that might make it difficult to use on aircraft is its high operating temperature.  A solar-thermophotovoltaic (STVP) device, the energy from the sunlight hitting the cells is “first converted to heat, which then causes the material to glow, emitting light that can, in turn, be converted to an electric current.” Having worked on an earlier version of STVPs, the researchers noted that the solar cells had many hollow cavities.  Nature …