Hacking the Sun: Infrared-to-Visible Photon Upconversion for Next-Generation Solar Energy Harvesting

Much of the infrared light from the sun is too low in energy to be absorbed by traditional solar cells. To harvest the lost solar energy, we develop a solid-state device that turns infrared photons into visible ones, a phenomenon called photon upconversion. Our device makes use of special interactions among excited inorganic nanocrystals and organic molecules.