相关论文: Design principles and fundamental trade-offs in bi…
Biology offers a boundless source of adaptation, innovation, and inspiration. A wide range of photosynthetic organisms exist that are capable of harvesting solar light in an exceptionally efficient way, using abundant and low-cost…
Efficient devices for light harvesting and photon sensing are fundamental building blocks of basic energy science and many essential technologies. Recent efforts have turned to biomimicry to design the next generation of light-capturing…
Silicon photodetectors operating at near-infrared wavelengths with high-speed and high sensitivity are becoming critical for emerging applications, such as Light Detection and Ranging Systems (LIDAR), quantum communications, and medical…
Photosynthetic organisms use networks of chromophores to absorb sunlight and deliver the energy to reaction centres, where charge separation triggers a cascade of chemical steps to store the energy. We present a detailed model of the…
Metamaterial thermal energy devices obtained from transformation optics have recently attracted wide attention due to their vast potential in energy storage, thermal harvesting or heat manipulation. However, these devices usually require…
We establish design principles for light-harvesting antennae whose energy capture scales superlinearly with system size. Controlling the absorber dipole orientations produces sets of `guide-slide' states which promote steady-state…
Elucidating quantum coherence effects and geometrical factors for efficient energy transfer in photosynthesis has the potential to uncover non-classical design principles for advanced organic materials. We study energy transfer in a linear…
The project aims to explore a novel way to design and produce cellular materials with good energy absorption and recoverability properties. Spinodoid structures offer an alternative to engineering structures such as honeycombs and foam with…
Panchromatic absorbing materials are widely regarded as a key strategy for enhancing solar energy utilization and photocurrent generation. However, in artificial molecular systems, broadening the absorption spectrum is often accompanied by…
An optimal control approach based on multiple parameter genetic algorithms is applied to the design of plasmonic nanoconstructs with pre-determined optical properties and functionalities. We first develop nanoscale metallic lenses that…
One-dimensional light harvesting structures with a realistic geometry nano-patterned on an opaque metallic film are optimized to render high transmission efficiencies at optical and infrared frequencies. Simple design rules are developed…
The discovery of molecules with tailored optoelectronic properties such as specific frequency and intensity of absorption or emission is a major challenge in creating next-generation organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and photovoltaics.…
We provide direct experimental evidence for a state-selection principle in a far-from-equilibrium system. Using the laser-driven growth of silicon nanowires as a uniquely clean and quantifiable platform, we show that a long-range ordered…
Solar cell designs based on disordered nanostructures tend to have higher efficiencies than structures with uniform absorbers, though the reason is poorly understood. To resolve this, we use a semi-analytic approach to determine the…
This work asks how light harvesting in photosynthetic systems can be optimised for economically scalable, sustainable energy production. Hierarchy theory is introduced as a system-analysis and optimisation tool better able to handle…
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are uniquely suited for semitransparent applications due to their adjustable absorption spectrum. However, most high-performance semitransparent cells reported to date are based on materials that have shown high…
Ideal absorption describes a particular means of optimizing light-matter interactions with a host of potential applications. This work presents new analytic formulas and describes semi-analytical methods for the design of electric or…
We establish a general mechanism for highly efficient quantum transport through finite, disordered 3D networks. It relies on the interplay of disorder with centro-symmetry and a dominant doublet spectral structure, and can be controlled by…
Recent advances in photonic optimization have enabled calculation of performance bounds for a wide range of electromagnetic objectives, albeit restricted to single-material systems. Motivated by growing theoretical interest and fabrication…
In this work we show how to maximize absorption of plasmonic nanoparticles in terms of size, geometry and material. For that reason the interaction of nanoparticles with light was decomposed into different effects. We determined that the…