In a study appearing in Nature Communication, the team – which included Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov – found that by combining graphene with metallic nanostructures, there was a 20-fold enhancement in the amount of light the graphene could harvest and convert into electrical power.
Graphene is a form of carbon just one atom thick and yet 100 times stronger than steel.
“Many electronics companies consider graphene for their next-gen devices. This work certainly boosts graphene’s chances,” said Novoselov, a scientist who with Geim won the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for graphene.
Previous research has shown that electrical power can be generated by putting two closely-spaced metallic wires on top of graphene and shining light on the whole structure, effectively making a simple solar cell.
Due to the high mobility and velocity of the electrons in graphene, such graphene cell devices can be incredibly fast – tens or potentially hundreds of times faster than the rates in the fastest Internet cables in use today.
The main stumbling block to practical applications has so far been the cell devices’ low efficiency, the researchers said. The problem is that graphene absorbs little light – only around 3 per cent – with the rest going through without contributing to the electrical power.
In a collaboration between the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, Novoselov’s team found they could solve this problem by combining graphene with tiny metallic structures known as plasmonic nanostructures, which are specially arranged on the graphene.
By using the plasmonic enhancement, the light-harvesting performance of graphene was boosted by 20 times without sacrificing any of its speed, they wrote in their study. Future efficiency could be improved even more, they said.
Andrea Ferrari of Cambridge University, who also worked on the team, said the findings show graphene’s great potential in photonics and in developing electronic devices that channel and control light. He said the combination of its special optical and electronic properties could now be fully exploited.
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