Researchers Developing More Powerful Solar Cells

PhysOrg.com, accessed 19 Sep 2006 Sure, Iowa has its share of rainy, snowy and cloudy days. But look out the window. “We have a lot of sunlight,” said Vikram Dalal as sunshine lit up a late-summer morning and the south-facing windows of his office at Iowa State University’s Applied Sciences Complex. Dalal, the director of Iowa State’s Microelectronics Research Center and the Thomas M. Whitney Professor in electrical and computer engineering, has spent more than three decades finding ways for that sunlight to generate more and more electricity. He thinks his latest project can boost the performance of an Iowa company’s solar cells by 40 to 50 percent. Read more