Several of Australia's top universities are working together on gaining a better understanding of excitons. The Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science is a partnership led by the University of Melbourne alongside other top Australian universities and organizations, and consists of a team with a broad range of expertise in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and other disciplines.Excitons are quasiparticles which can form as a photon is absorbed by a semiconductor material. They can also emit light, and are part of the reason humans see light and color.
A better understanding of the excitons formed by certain materials, and the ability to harvest or manipulate them could lead the development of new highly efficient solar cell materials, and also types of lighting that are much more energy efficient than current LED technology.
"We are interested in controlling and harvesting the energy," says centre director Professor Paul Mulvaney. "So we harvest not the light directly, but the excitons as they are formed."
Each material has a unique 'exciton signature', ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...