Welcome to the Nanophotovoltaics website
The Nanophotovoltaics program is a research program of the Center for Nanophotonics at the FOM Institute AMOLF. It was established in 2008. In this program the groups of Albert Polman, Mischa Bonn and Jaime Gomez Rivas collaborate to develop novel photovoltaic energy conversion concepts based on nanotechnology. The program focuses on the study of novel physical concepts and insights. In some cases prototype devices will also be made. The program's research topics are:
* light trapping in thin-film solar cells using plasmonic nanostructures
* harvesting excitons in novel quantum dot solar cell geometries
* light trapping and conversion in semiconductor nanowire solar cells
The program is carried out in collaboration with partners at Utrecht University, the Energy Research Center (ECN), CALTECH, Stanford University, and the Australian National University. It is funded by FOM and partly sponsored by the Global Climate and Energy program (GCEP), Shell Research, and Toyota.
- Artist impression of a plasmonic solar cell.
- THz spectroscopy: a contact free technique to study the carrier dynamics in quantum dots and other semiconductors.
- Nanowire graded-index antireflection layer to capture more light into a solar cell.
- The nanophotovoltaics group at Nuon Helianthos (February 2011). From left to right: Edward Hamers (Nuon Helianthos), Jorik van de groep, Claire van Lare, Soren Jensen, Enrique Canovas, Piero Spinelli, Grzegorz Grzela, and in the front: Jaime Gomez Rivaz.
- The Nanophotovoltaics group (May 2010). From left to right: Maarten, Claire, Jaime, Christophe, Grzegorz, Silke, Soren, Puck, Albert, Simon, Piero
- The Nanophotovoltaics group (September 2009). From left to right: Simon, Soren, Yichen, Christophe, Grzegorz, Silke, Ronald, Mischa, Puck, Joep, Robb, Jaime, Albert, Claire, René, Vivian, Ewold, Maarten