'Black silicon' boosts solar cell efficiency

Rough surface means black silicon traps wide range of light frequencies, says company after decade of development An ultra-sensitive form of the silicon used in most solar panels may soon help to harness the near limitless power of the sun. Thanks to an extremely rough surface, "black silicon" can absorb more light and can also trap a wider range of frequencies, including infra-red rays, that normally pass straight through standard silicon. Eric Mazur, a physicist at Harvard University, discovered black silicon by accident in his laboratory in 1998 when one of his research team blasted normal silicon with a very short laser pulse. Almost a decade later, the company created to commercialise his work, SiOnyx, has announced the production of the first commercial-grade wafers. While producing electricity from the sun's rays has... [read full story]