Saturday 12 July 2014

One step to solar-cell efficiency: Researchers’ chemical process may improve manufacturing

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Rice University scientists have created a one-step process for producing highly efficient materials that let the maximum amount of sunlight reach a solar cell. The Rice lab of chemist Andrew Barron found a simple way to etch nanoscale spikes into silicon that allows more than 99 percent of sunlight to reach the cells’ active elements, where it can be turned into electricity.     Rice University scientists have reduced to one step the process to turn silicon wafers into the black silicon used in solar cells. The advance could cut costs associated with the production of solar cells. Here, a cross section shows inverted pyramids etched into silicon by a chemical mixture over eight hours. (Credit: Barron Group/Rice University) The research by Barron and Rice graduate student and lead author Yen-Tien Lu appears in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A. The more light absorbed by a solar panel’s active elements, the more power it will produce. But the light has to get there. Coatings in current use that protect the active elements let most light pass but reflect some as well. Various strategies have cut reflectance down to about 6 percent, Barron said, but the anti-reflection is

The post One step to solar-cell efficiency: Researchers’ chemical process may improve manufacturing has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Center of Milky Way in Sagittarius Print

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ImageID: RR016935 / Roger Ressmeyer / CORBIS / Center of Milky Way in Sagittarius /

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Quantum state may be a real thing

Science Focus

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At the very heart of quantum mechanics lies a monster waiting to consume unwary minds. This monster goes by the name The Nature of Reality. The greatest of physicists have taken one look into its mouth, saw the size of its teeth, and were consumed. Niels Bohr denied the existence of the monster after he nonchalantly (and very quietly) exited the monster's lair muttering "shut up and calculate." Einstein caught a glimpse of the teeth and fainted. He was reportedly rescued by Erwin Schrödinger at great personal risk, but neither really recovered from their encounter with the beast.

The upshot is that we had a group of physicists and philosophers who didn't believe that quantum mechanics represents reality but that it was all we could see of some deeper, more fundamental theory. A subclass of these scientists believed that the randomness of quantum mechanics would eventually be explained by some non-random, deterministic property that we simply couldn't directly observe (otherwise known as a hidden variable). Another group ended up believing that quantum mechanics did represent reality, and that, yes, reality was non-local, and possibly not very real either.

To one extent or another, these two groups are still around and still generate a fair amount of heat when they are in proximity to each other. Over the years, you would have to say that the scales have been slowly tipping in favor of the latter group. Experiments and theory have largely eliminated hidden variables. Bohm's pilot wave, a type of hidden variable, has to be pretty extraordinary to be real.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/aLbpiku39GM/
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2D Electronic-Vibrational Spectroscopy Technique Provides Unprecedented Look into Photochemical Reactions

Science Focus

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From allowing our eyes to see, to enabling green plants to harvest energy from the sun, photochemical reactions – reactions triggered by light – are both ubiquitous and critical to nature. Photochemical reactions also play essential roles in high technology, from the creation of new nanomaterials to the development of more efficient solar energy systems. Using photochemical reactions to our best advantage requires a deep understanding of the interplay between the electrons and atomic nuclei within a molecular system after that system has been excited by light. A major advance towards acquiring this knowledge has been reported by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. Graham Fleming, UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research, a faculty senior scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division, and member of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley, led the development of a new experimental technique called two-dimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy (2D-EV). By combining the advantages of two well-established spectroscopy technologies – 2D-electronic and 2D-infrared – this technique is the first that can be used to simultaneously monitor electronic and molecular dynamics on a femtosecond (millionth of a billionth

The post 2D Electronic-Vibrational Spectroscopy Technique Provides Unprecedented Look into Photochemical Reactions has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/XoHSSE-trSU/
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'Largest flying bird' identified

Science Focus

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The fossilised remains of the largest flying bird ever found are identified by scientists. 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28164063#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Crab Pulsar Time Lapse - Neutron Star Square Stickers

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tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, envelope sealers, crbplsr, crab pulsar, time lapse astronomy, neutron star, matter and antimatter, near light speed

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan.

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Image credit: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope

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SN 1006 Supernova Remnant

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A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, lit up planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation of Lupus, still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, this composite view includes X-ray data in blue from the Chandra Observatory, optical data in yellowish hues, and radio image data in red. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a white dwarf star. Part of a binary star system, the compact white dwarf gradually captured material from its companion star. The buildup in mass finally triggered a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed the dwarf star. Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000 light-years, that explosion actually happened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006. Shockwaves in the remnant accelerate particles to extreme energies and are thought to be a source of the mysterious cosmic rays.

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Keyhole Nebula Wall Decals

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"When 19th century astronomer Sir John Herschel spied a swirling cloud of gas with a hole punched through it, he dubbed it the Keyhole Nebula. Now the Hubble telescope has taken a peek at this region, and the resulting image reveals previously unseen details of the Keyhole's mysterious, complex structure. The Keyhole is part of a larger region called the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), about 8,000 light-years from Earth."

(qtd. from Hubblesite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2000-06)

Credit: NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

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Tarantula Nebula Large Magellanic Cloud iPad Mini Case

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Brash young stars vie for attention in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a rowdy stellar nursery located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus). Early astronomers gave the nebula this descriptive nickname because its glowing, spindly filaments look like spider legs.

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New approach may be key to quantum dot solar cells with real gains in efficiency

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Los Alamos researchers have demonstrated an almost four-fold boost of the carrier multiplication yield with nanoengineered quantum dots. Carrier multiplication is when a single photon can excite multiple electrons. Quantum dots are novel nanostructures that can become the basis of the next generation of solar cells, capable of squeezing additional electricity out of the extra energy of blue and ultraviolet photons. Core/shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots (a) and a carrier multiplication (CM) pathway (b) in these nano structures. (a) Transmission electron microscopy image of thick-shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots developed for this study. (b) A hot hole generated in the shell via absorption of a photon collides with a core-localized valence-band electron, promoting it across the energy-gap, which generates a second electron-hole pair. In thick-shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots this process is enhanced due to slow relaxation of shell-localized holes into the core. “Typical solar cells absorb a wide portion of the solar spectrum, but because of the rapid cooling of energetic (or ‘hot’) charge carriers, the extra energy of blue and ultraviolet solar photons is wasted in producing heat,” said Victor Klimov, director of the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Getting two for the price of

The post New approach may be key to quantum dot solar cells with real gains in efficiency has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Out of an hours-long explosion, a stand-in for the first stars

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Astronomers analyzing a long-lasting blast of high-energy light observed in 2013 report finding features strikingly similar to those expected from an explosion from the universe's earliest stars. If this interpretation is correct, the outburst validates ideas about a recently identified class of gamma-ray burst and serves as a stand-in for what future observatories may see as the last acts of the first stars.

via Science Daily

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Earth Rising Over Moon Surface Poster

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Crab Pulsar Time Lapse - Neutron Star Stickers

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan.

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Omega Nebula (M17) Room Graphics

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"A watercolor fantasyland? No. It's actually an image of the center of the Omega Nebula, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. ...

The region of the nebula shown in this photograph is about 3,500 times wider than our solar system. The area represents about 60 percent of the total view captured by ACS. The nebula, also called M17 and the Swan Nebula, resides 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius."

(qtd. from Hubblesite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2002-11)

Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA

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