New Meta Material Could Be A Perfect Solar Solution

Researchers from Duke University and the Academy of Boston have created what could become the perfect solution for solar energy. They have designed a meta material using small geometric shapes to absorb the electric and magnetic properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain range of frequencies to a level that meets the standards of scientific perfection. This results in absorption of light, turning it into heat, which then can create energy.

Willie J Padilla, a research from the team of the Academy of Boston, said that the meta material is designed to ensure that light is neither reflected nor transmitted, but converted into heat and absorbed. This happens with the light only in a narrow frequency range, but is a major breakthrough.

The meta materials are designed so that its physical components gain new properties that allow them to respond to radiation in tolerated ways. This is the first meta material that shows a perfect absorption and constructed of materials such as metal can be used for a variety of applications for the detection and collection of light, one of which could possibly be the most efficient generation solar energy.