Solar Power without Solar Cells太阳能的太阳能电池

A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan1 researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.

戏剧性的和令人惊讶的磁光效应发现michigan1大学研究人员可能导致太阳能没有传统的半导体太阳能电池。

The researchers found a way to make an "optical battery," said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.

研究人员发现了一种使“光电池，说：”史蒂芬兰德，系教授电气工程与计算机科学，物理和应用物理。

Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.

光的电场和磁场组成部分。直到现在，科学家认为磁效应很弱，可以忽略。什么兰德和他的同事们发现，在适当的强度，当光线穿过一个材料，不导电，光场可以产生磁效应，强100000000倍，比原先预期。在这种情况下，磁作用发展实力相当强的影响。

"This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation," Rand said. "In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load2. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment3. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source."What makes this possible is a previously undetected brand of "optical rectification4," says William Fisher, a doctoral student5 in applied physics. In traditional optical rectification, light's electric field causes a charge separation, or a pulling apart of the positive and negative charges6 in a material. This sets up a voltage, similar to that in a battery.

“这可能导致一种新的太阳能电池的半导体和不吸收不产生电荷分离，”兰德说。”太阳能电池，光进入材料，吸收和产生热量。在这里，我们期望有一个非常低的热3。相反的光被吸收，能量储存在磁moment3。强磁化可诱导强烈的光，然后最终能够提供一个电容电源。”是什么使这可能是一种以前未被发现的品牌“光rectification4，”威廉说，student5应用物理学博士。在传统的光学矫正，光的电场使电荷分离，或撕裂的积极和消极charges6材料。这建立了一个电压，类似于一个电池。

Rand and Fisher found that under the right circumstances and in right types of materials, the light's magnetic field can also create optical rectification. The light must be shone through7 a material that does not conduct electricity, such as glass. And it must be focused to an intensity of 10 million watts per square centimeter8. Sunlight isn't this intense on its own, but new materials are being sought that would work at lower intensities, Fisher said.

兰德和渔民发现，正确的情况下，对各类材料，光的磁场也可以创造光整流。光线一定要照through7材料，不导电，玻璃等。它必须被集中到一个强度为10000000瓦每平方centimeter8。阳光不强烈的自己，但新材料被要求将工作在较低的强度，费雪说。

"In our most recent paper, we show that incoherent light9 like sunlight is theoretically almost as. effective in producing charge separation as laser light is," Fisher said.

“在我们的最新文件，我们表明，非相干light9理论几乎像阳光。有效地产生电荷分离激光光，”。

This new technique could make solar power cheaper, the researchers say. They predict that with improved materials they could achieve 10 percent efficiency in converting solar power to useable energy. That's equivalent to today's commercial-grade solar cells.

这种新技术可以使太阳能更便宜的，研究人员说。他们预测，提高材料可以达到百分之10的效率，把太阳能转换成可用的能源。这相当于今天的商业级太阳能电池。

"To manufacture modern solar cells, you have to do extensive semiconductor processing," Fisher said. "All we would need are lenses to focus the light and a fiber to guide it. Glass works for both . It's already made in bulk10, and it doesn't require as much processing. Transparent ceramics might be even better."

制造现代太阳能电池，你必须做广泛的半导体处理，”他说。”所有我们需要的镜头集中光源和光纤引导它。玻璃工程为。它已经在bulk10，而且不需要尽可能多的处理。透明陶瓷可能会更好。