By Bill Steele, Cornell University: "A key step in many nanofabrication processes is to create thin films, sometimes only one molecule thick, by a method known as atomic layer deposition. Researchers at Cornell and Tel Aviv University have developed a new tool for nanofabricators to test the physical properties of such films.

Ultrathin films are increasingly important in constructing microcircuits. Their physical characteristics often determine their electronic behavior as well as their resistance to wear.

The researchers have shown that tiny resonant cantilevers -- silicon rods anchored at one end, like a tiny diving board -- can determine the density of a film and its Young's modulus, a measure of resistance to bending. The method offers several advantages over other methods of measuring these characteristics of thin films, the researchers said, and can be used by any researchers with access to nanofabrication capabilities comparable to those at the Cornell Nanoscale Facility."

By Marie Freebody, Photonics.com: "The quest for high power-conversion efficiency in most thin-film solar cells has often been hindered by the "thick and thin" challenge, in which a cell must be thick enough to collect a sufficient amount of light, yet thin enough to extract current. Now a novel solar cell devised by physicists at Boston College in Chestnut Hill and inspired by the coaxial cable resolves this dilemma by being both optically thick and electrically thin.

'The challenge has to do with the desire to make a highly optically absorbing cell that is simultaneously highly efficient at extracting electric charge as current," said one of the creators, Michael Naughton, a professor of physics at the college. "In simple terms, a thick cell achieves the former, while a thin cell, the latter. Our nanocoax design achieves both, which has intrinsic advantages in terms of cost, so long as good efficiency can be achieved.'

The so-called nanocoax solar cell boasts greater efficiency than any previously designed nanotech thin-film (noncrystalline) solar cell. As reported in the July 2010 issue of Physica Status Solidi, the nanocoax cells, made with amorphous silicon, yield power-conversion efficiency in excess of 8 percent, and similar cells yielded efficiencies of more than 9.6 percent."

By Stefan Braendle, Solar Industry: "The 2009 Solar Study from Switzerland-based Bank Sarasin predicts a global growth rate of solar thermal of 15% to 20% annually to an eventual installed capacity of 340 GW by 2020... 

New advances in solar absorber technology have enabled solar thermal technology to realize greater levels of system efficiency and dura­bility at lower costs... Most solar thermal systems that utilize flat-plate collectors are built around either a sheet of absorbing material or a series of absorber fins encased in a frame designed to with­stand the elements. Tubing is affixed to the back side of this absorber, where the heat from the sun is transferred to fluid traveling through the tube.  

Modern solar thermal absorbers have witnessed two significant tech­nology evolutions that led to signifi­cant efficiency and durability gains. We are on the cusp of a third tech­nology evolution that will drive the continued expansion and maturation of the industry."

"Harnessing darkness for practical use, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laser power detector coated with the world's darkest material - a forest of carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible and part of the infrared spectrum."

"The coating absorbs laser light and converts it to heat, which is registered in pyroelectric material (lithium tantalate in this case). The rise in temperature generates a current, which is measured to determine the power of the laser. The blacker the coating, the more efficiently it absorbs light instead of reflecting it, and the more accurate the measurements."

"The new NIST detector uniformly reflects less than 0.1 percent of light at wavelengths from deep violet at 400 nanometers (nm) to near infrared at 4 micrometers (μm) and less than 1 percent of light in the infrared spectrum. The results are similar to those reported by an earlier Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute team and in a 2009 paper by a Japanese group. The NIST team grew the carbon nanotubes directly on to the pyroelectric material rather than silicon used by earlier teams. This eliminated a step to incorporate a layer to indirectly convert incident laser light to a readable electrical signal."

"The Boeing Company announced that Spectrolab, a wholly owned subsidiary, has started mass production of its newest terrestrial solar cell, the C3MJ+ has an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 %. The C3MJ+ is the industry's highest-efficiency commercial cell."

"Russ Jones, Spectrolab director of CPV Business Development said, 'Last year we set a new world record for efficiency with a test cell that peaked at 41.6 %. We now have entered production with essentially this same technology and plan to deliver the first of these 39.2 percent efficiency cells in January.'" 

"Spectrolab has mass produced a new series of solar cells with increased energy-conversion efficiency each year since 2007. The current C3MJ series introduced in mid-2009 has sold more than 2 million cells worldwide.  'Given the new cells' close similarity to our existing production cells, we believe that our current C3MJ customers will be able to easily upgrade for more efficiency,' Jones added. Utility companies are starting to take terrestrial concentrator arrays seriously for utility based power systems."