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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the Wait,-what? dept.

Black silicon photodetector breaks the 100% efficiency limit:

Aalto University researchers have developed a black silicon photodetector that has reached above 130% efficiency. Thus, for the first time, a photovoltaic device has exceeded the 100% limit, which has earlier been considered as the theoretical maximum for external quantum efficiency.

"When we saw the results, we could hardly believe our eyes. Straight away we wanted to verify the results by independent measurements," says Prof. Hele Savin, head of the Electron Physics research group at Aalto University.

The independent measurements were carried out by the German National Metrology Institute, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), which is known to provide the most accurate and reliable measurement services in Europe.

Head of the PTB Laboratory of Detector Radiometry, Dr. Lutz Werner comments, "After seeing the results, I instantly realized that this is a significant breakthrough—and at the same time, a much-welcomed step forward for us metrologists dreaming of higher sensitivities."

[...] The results leading to the record efficiency has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters in an article titled "Black-silicon ultraviolet photodiodes achieve external quantum efficiency above 130%."

Garin et al. Black-silicon ultraviolet photodiodes achieve external quantum efficiency above 130%, Physical Review Letters (2020). arxiv.org/abs/1907.13397


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:52PM (8 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:52PM (#1037552)

    Ah, see, there's the rub - photon emitters at this wavelength have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 50%....

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:39PM (7 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:39PM (#1037596)

    So just make an emitter using the reverse process of the detector. Any more problems to solve? :)

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 16 2020, @10:38PM (6 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday August 16 2020, @10:38PM (#1037636)

      On the more serious side... this "100% efficiency" thing is like a 400% efficient refrigerant cycle... you're releasing 1.3 electrons per photon detected, but you already had the 1.3 electrons pumped up and ready to go, they're not free, they're just being released at a particularly high rate per photon compared to previous detectors.

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      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @12:21AM

        by RS3 (6367) on Monday August 17 2020, @12:21AM (#1037669)

        Muahaha, my plan worked perfectly. I've manipulated and goaded you into giving me the tl;dr synopsis. Seriously, thank you.

        You know a lot about a lot. Are you an EE? I like physics and understood well what I had to study, but I don't dig in too much. I did well with quantum energy states, etc., but haven't used it since college. But now you've got me curious. I remember a recent article (somewhere) about a photomultiplier tube that achieved some new level of sensitivity, like 1 photon or such. So this is the silicon equivalent? Maybe a HEMT thing? Is an electric field bias cheating?

         

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @12:29AM (4 children)

        by RS3 (6367) on Monday August 17 2020, @12:29AM (#1037674)

        BTW, where to they get those .3 electrons from? CERN? Maybe it's a secret? Or maybe it's a quantum cleaver dopant in the silicon lattice?

        :)

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Monday August 17 2020, @02:20AM

          by driverless (4770) on Monday August 17 2020, @02:20AM (#1037706)

          BTW, where to they get those .3 electrons from?

          Aldi has them, but limit two per customer while stocks last.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 17 2020, @02:32AM (2 children)

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday August 17 2020, @02:32AM (#1037710)

          I'd bet there's a quantum physicist somewhere explaining how it's a statistical process where 1/3 events generates 2, except for the 1/30 events that don't, except for the exception....

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          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @02:40AM

            by RS3 (6367) on Monday August 17 2020, @02:40AM (#1037711)

            Apply for a research grant!

          • (Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:14AM

            by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:14AM (#1038153)

            I'd bet there's a quantum physicist somewhere explaining...

            In some branch of the many worlds theory, there is a quantum physicist explaining...