Trapping sunlight with silicon nanowires

Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are developing a new approach that could substantially reduce the cost of solar power.

"Through the fabrication of thin films from ordered arrays of vertical silicon nanowires, we've been able to increase the light-trapping in our solar cells by a factor of 73," says chemist Peidong Yang, who led this research.

"Since the fabrication technique behind this extraordinary light-trapping enhancement is a relatively simple and scalable aqueous chemistry process, we believe our approach represents an economically viable path toward high-efficiency, low-cost thin-film solar cells."

Read the full Science Daily article at
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/
100304121550.htm