Optical discs used as solar panels

Can a Blu-ray Disc help solar cells absorb sunlight?

The Northwestern researchers have demonstrated that a Blu-ray disc’s strings of binary code 0s and 1s, embedded as islands and pits to store video information, give solar cells the near-optimal surface texture to improve their absorption over the broad spectrum of sunlight.

Could a Blu-ray Disc be on a solar panel?

After all, solar panels must also trap light as it comes in. Maybe by replicating the microscopic, glassy wonderland of the surface of a Blu-ray disc onto a solar panel, the engineers could up a solar panel’s performance. This isn’t as weird of an idea as it seems at first blush.

Can Blu-ray patterned solar cells be used for light trapping?

The overall broadband absorption enhancement of a Blu-ray patterned solar cell was measured to be 21.8 percent, the researchers report. “In addition to improving polymer solar cells, our simulation suggests the Blu-ray patterns could be broadly applied for light trapping in other kinds of solar cells,” Sun said.

Can a Blu-ray pattern solar panels?

The Northwestern team sought a cheaper way to pattern solar panels. A Blu-ray’s microscopic surface patterns follow rules Blu-ray engineers wrote for getting discs to hold the amount of information required for high-definition movies.

Can a Blu-ray Disc diffuse sunlight?

Normally, expensive, pre-made fabrications using “quasi-random nanostructures” are used to diffuse the sunlight to achieve maximum efficiency. However, upon study, the surface of the Blu-ray disc, burned with islands and pits containing binary data — ones and zeroes — were found to be a more optimal pattern for achieving this effect.

Do solar panels work better if sunlight is spread evenly?

Researchers first used the pattern from a Blu-ray copy of the Jackie Chan film “Supercop” to test efficiency Solar panels perform more efficiently when sunlight is spread evenly over the cells’ surface, allowing for more equal exposure.