Atoms-the reason behind everything

Ferdous, Naheed

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/95875 Copy

Description

Title

Atoms-the reason behind everything

Author(s)

Ferdous, Naheed

Issue Date

2017

Keyword(s)

Mechanical Science and Engineering

Abstract

Physicist, Richard Feynman was asked, if scientific knowledge gathered till now were to be destroyed, what is the one sentence that we shall pass on to next generation. The answer was that everything is made of atoms. I look closely to the atomic configuration of photovoltaic devices, where a semiconducting material like silicon absorbs sunlight to create electricity. When sunlight is absorbed, the electrons bound to an atom gets enough energy from sunlight to go into higher energy level. We create new energy levels by introducing foreign atom in silicon like gold here. This picture shows bonding between gold and silicon (blue) atoms where electron density goes from high to low at red to blue region respectively. The shape of red area qualitatively tells us how many electrons are shared between atoms. The geometry gives us crystal structure of the system that quantifies how many high energy levels are present for electrons to jump on. I am excited to try new materials and find out how they behave, as our goal is to enhance sunlight absorption, which is a fantastic new approach to solve current global energy problem.

Type of Resource

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Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2017 Naheed Ferdous

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