SoylentNews

tonyPick writes:

phys.org has a report on reusing Blu-Ray disks as nanoimprinting templates for solar cells, improving performance.

Using the pattern from the Blu-Ray, the compressed data sequences:

...resulted in a quasi-random array of islands and pits (0s and 1s) with feature sizes between 150 and 525 nanometers. And this range, it turns out, works quite well for light-trapping applications over the entire solar spectrum.

The overall broadband absorption enhancement of a Blu-ray patterned solar cell was measured to be 21.8 percent, the researchers report.

Also covered at IEEE Spectrum, and from the Spectrum article:

While it’s certainly appealing to think about recycling our Blu-ray discs directly into more efficient solar panels, a more realistic approach might be to use the mass-production infrastructure that’s already in place to create optical media that’s adapted to improving solar cell performance.