Tag Archives: gallium arsenide

The PETE process: Solar heat + light = more electricity

News: Alternative Energy    August 4, 2010
Using the light from the Sun to generate electricity is commonplace. So is generating electricity through heat, as in steam turbines. Combining solar light and solar heat to generate energy is an obvious juxtaposition, but until now undemonstrated as a feasible technology. That’s why the proof of concept testing on a concept called PETE (photon [...]
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A lasing germanium

News: Communications    February 5, 2010
Germanium, a semiconducting element, is not supposed to lase. That is, when it gets its electrons excited, they go flying off as heat – not light. So the conventional wisdom in microelectronic circles (and textbooks) is that germanium does not lase – and can’t be made to work in a laser. This was unfortunate, because [...]
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