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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:43PM (5 children)
...mine goes to 11.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:46PM (4 children)
Centimeters? Millimeters?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @07:35PM (1 child)
Ångströms...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 17 2020, @01:43AM
Tufnels
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Monday August 17 2020, @02:16AM (1 child)
Inches, bitch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @03:19PM
If you start measuring from your asshole.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:50PM (18 children)
So take the output of the photodetector, feed it into the photon emitter, siphon off 30% so it doesn't explode, and use that 30% to power a city, electric cars and trucks, ion drive rockets, etc.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 16 2020, @05:52PM (8 children)
Ah, see, there's the rub - photon emitters at this wavelength have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 50%....
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 5, Funny) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:39PM (7 children)
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)
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.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @12:21AM
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)
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
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)
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....
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @02:40AM
Apply for a research grant!
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:14AM
In some branch of the many worlds theory, there is a quantum physicist explaining...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @06:26PM (8 children)
It's more than 100% efficient as a detector, not as an energy producer. That means one photon excites, on average, 1.3 electrons. This says nothing about the efficiency of the conversion of light energy into electric energy, which is necessarily still less than 100%.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 16 2020, @06:43PM
Like a 400% efficient refrigeration cycle...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:42PM (6 children)
People here are too serious sometimes... It was an obvious (or so I thought) joke.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:53PM (3 children)
It seems jokes here are only okay if the science is just right. Thus precludes 2/3rds of potential laughter energy. Concluding that SN has maximum joke efficiency of 30% possible.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:22PM
Both funny and true.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 17 2020, @01:49AM (1 child)
Concluding that SN has maximum joke efficiency of 30% possible...
....but only a 50/50 chance of that.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @02:43AM
Depending on the quantum state of the photon-excited electrons at the moment we can't be certain of anyway.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:42PM (1 child)
Poe's law, my friend. I've seen things that just had to be a joke offered up in full sincerity too many times in my life.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @10:10PM
Poe's law- interesting. Thanks (again?) I think you mentioned that to me here some time ago. Methinks that's why smileys were invented? But for sure, intent and humor are often lost, especially in blogs where 1) we're not necessarily wordsmiths (and I'm surely not), and 2) it's mostly off the cuff. I certainly don't have time to edit and think and edit...
Back to Dr. Who...
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday August 16 2020, @06:50PM (1 child)
Not only would it exceed unity, but it would also do so 1.12 seconds before the first photon hit it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @04:18AM
So does this mean we can just pump infinite energy into the past and have all of yesterday's energy problems solved last year?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday August 16 2020, @06:51PM (3 children)
Will the coffee machine give me 30% off?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @04:22AM (2 children)
No, it will pay you 30 percent of the coffee's value to take the coffee.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday August 17 2020, @06:03AM (1 child)
You still get the free cup?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @03:23PM
Yes, if you bring a cup.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday August 16 2020, @07:16PM (1 child)
In this universe we obey the laws of THERMODYNAMICS!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @03:24PM
Quantum or classical?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @07:26PM (9 children)
The .3 is coming from where?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Sunday August 16 2020, @08:32PM (6 children)
the maximum theoretical limit was calculated, and, arbitrarily*, designated the point at which photodetectors would be achievieng "100%" efficiency.
The theoretical limit has been found ot be wrong, but rather than adjust all the textbooks, they report "130% efficiency", when what they should be saying is "130% of the previously understood theoretical maximum".
* just because scientists did it doesn't make it right or wrong, it was based on theory, and it was arbitrary.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:54PM (1 child)
Kinda like when Ben Franklin said electricity flows from pos to neg, he didn't know and guessed wrong. Electron flow is neg to pos.
Maybe the speed of light limit is breakable after all.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Monday August 17 2020, @01:56AM
not too unreasonable, and it wasn't a guess - the empty electron 'gap' apparently moves from positive to negative, which is all he could see with the equipment available at the time.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 17 2020, @03:37AM (3 children)
Not quite that arbitrary and the original authors documented their assumptions [wikipedia.org] - don't blame them for the popular misunderstanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday August 17 2020, @06:00AM (2 children)
you expect anyone to RTFA?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Monday August 17 2020, @06:55AM
Of course not.
If everybody would RTFA, how am I going to get Informative mods by providing correction based on TFA? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Monday August 17 2020, @10:20AM
I would expect a better title from phys.org.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:24PM (1 child)
Dark energy. Duh.
:)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2020, @10:06PM
dork energy
(Score: 1) by MIRV888 on Sunday August 16 2020, @10:35PM (3 children)
I don't pretend to understand the energy dynamics of interaction between light and substances, but is this article suggesting this material absorbs more light than it can hold? Wouldn't it glow or irradiate you? Is it having a fission/ fusion reaction from the sun?
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday August 17 2020, @12:10AM (2 children)
No, this says "We're knocking out into the conduction band more than one electron for each incident photon [wikipedia.org]".
A thing that doesn't violate any physics laws, given that the photon is in the UV range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 17 2020, @12:26AM (1 child)
Wow, interesting- I skimmed TFA but didn't get that from it. So how does this dovetail with Einstein's photoelectric effect and theories?
Or does Einstein still stand, and this is more of an effect of silicon and its easily manipulated electrons? Like one electron goes running so somehow the motion triggers others that are somehow ready to jump ship?
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday August 17 2020, @01:25AM
It doesn't contradict it, in solid/liquid phase the energy levels are smeared into large absorption bands (in contrast with rarefied gasses, with a nice emission/absorption narrow lines).
See also Compton scattering [wikipedia.org], where the "collision" of an X-ray photon leads to an emergent photon with lower energy. Compton scattering works at higher energies (X-ray), enough for the electrons to be considered "quasi-free" (the binding energy of the electron being so much smaller than the incident photons). Even if UV energy is lower, it has at least twice of the band-gap energy of the silicon (3eV+ for UV, 1.1eV for bandgap of silicon).
Supplementary, these guys used a nanostructured silicon photodiode, far from the homogeneous medium usually assumed by the basic theories. See also black silicone [wikipedia.org] (nano-patterned for a very low-reflectivity/high-absorption)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @12:01AM
Phallus meat holy asshole.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2020, @06:24AM
Marissa Van Eck FAKENAME NIGGER CUNT Azuma Hazuki: So "that was NOT me posting" https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985641#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] which YES, you said when you LIBELED me publicly BEFORE it with YOU saying "So that's a "yes" to schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and a "no" to "am taking meds for said disorder" LIBELING ME then...?" per YOUR https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=982854#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] you stupid pitiful FAKENAME fuck online LIAR piece of fucking SHIT NIGGER?
OR
Was it when I GOT YOUR REAL NAME & found you are a satanist/anti-god HERE https://redeeminggod.com/sermons/luke/luke_7_36-50/#comment-269796 [soylentnews.org] also which most ALL you "LEFTIST" LOSER weirdos usually are (which YES, in THIS other exchange "Why do you assume that you finding discussion threads on other sites with me in them will scare me?" quoted from https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38720&page=1&cid=1028402#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] you DID admit FINALLY to saying it was you - ESPECIALLY AFTER dozens of doctors RECENTLY seconded me on Hydroxychloroquin + Zinc (& Vitamin D3 imo along w/ other things I noted that are anti-viral + antibacterial like RAW GARLIC too)).
Do me a favor - DENY ANY OF THOSE, please & I will continue PROVING YOU ARE A NIGGER SHITBAG LOSER, devil... as I already DID here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38720&page=1&cid=1028211#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
The TRUE BEAUTY of SATANIST FUCKS like YOU (antigod assholes)? TRUTH & FACT DESTROYS LIBELOUS DEVILS LIKE YOU - just like I did you & OTHER AHOLES who doubted what I wrote on what is NOW PROVEN TRUE by DOCTORS, admitted in mainstream media etc. (as I showed in those links' exchanges above easily) & especially LATELY by DOZENS of doctors (I have proof from pros - NOT LIBEL like you did to me PUBLICLY & I can still FRY YOU FOR IT FUCKER, live in fear fuck) MINUS any psych pros backing you.
SAY 1 THING, YOU STINKING LIBELOUS NIGGER FUCK & I will CONTINUE LEVELLING YOU PUBLICLY with facts - not libel as you tried on me, stupid "Marissa von DUMBO", lol - please, say 1 thing & the BEATING on you, PUBLICLY will continue in this thread where you will have a HELL of a TIME "downmod burying it" via downmod brigades doubtless ONLY yourself via multiple sockpuppet accounts etc. (downodding to HIDE it? FORGET IT vs. me - everyone sees you @ it now, lol - thanks, just as I SAID "your kind", demonic SWINE/antigod LOSERS, always do).
WHY SHOULD YOU FEAR LIBELING ME PROJECTING IT NOW, TRYING TO HIDE IT TOO?
TOUGH HIDING YOU LIED about LIBELING ME, especially via INHERENTLY DAMAGING STATEMENTS libeling me as you did see GOLDWATER RULE below too fuckface CUNT you are (wikipedia proof https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985366#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] & you said "No jury or judge would back it" here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985353#commentwrap? [soylentnews.org] Ok - like I said earlier here which you TRIED TO DOWNMOD HIDE as I knew you HAVE to (everyone sees it anyhow) - TRY ME FUCKER - say 1 thing you COWARDLY STUPID LITTLE FUCK & we'll SEE what happens to you, fuckface CUNT you are).
As I said "DO YOU WANT TO BE SUED" for breaking the GOLDWATER RULE? See here again https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985329#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] for YOUR (& everyone else's) reference of YOUR LIBEL of myself
APK
P.S.=> Oh, I am going to have a FIELDDAY on YOUR ASS fucker - catching you not ONLY IN LIES above, but also in the fact you are a GODLESS fucking LOSER - come on, say something, question the above where you LIED fucker ("it was not me saying it" but it WAS in those links calling me a nutcase essentially when YOU SAID YOU DID NOT (because it IS grounds for SUING THE LIFE OUT OF YOUR WORTHLESS ASS because your statements are NOT BACKED BY actual psychiatric pros in professional psychiatric grounds LIBELING ME)) - oh, you are NEVER going to LIVE THIS DOWN & believe you me - I am going to MAKE SURE you don't - live with your HUMILIATION loser... apk