It could hardly be doubted that light, among numerous other natural phenomena, appears to be one of the most complicated aspects of contemporary physics. Throughout the history of the human race, people were amazed by light, as some ancient nations even believed the sun to have divine powers. Later, the phenomenon of light became one of the central subjects of interest in scientific research, and since then, numerous discoveries were made. Each of them had been deepening and broadening the state of current knowledge.
As it is pointed out by Walmsley (2015), the ability of light to reflect itself from almost any surfaces and objects is the primary source of our vision. As for another example, light is one of the principal components of the process of photosynthesis, which is the foundation of oxygen circulation on Earth. It is possible to continue this list of natural processes in which light plays the central role. However, the purpose of this paper is to focus more on contemporary scientific research and to investigate how the phenomenon of light is studied by modern scientists and scholars. This research paper will dwell upon recent academic literature on the topic, exploring various topics related to the use of light.
Perspectives of Using Light as the Source for Electricity in Solar Cells
The Use of Perovskite-silicon Tandem Cells
It could be argued that the use of light as the source of electric power is one of the most promising trajectories of contemporary scientific research since it has both theoretical and practical significance. Light is converted into electricity primarily by means of using solar cells. The first article under discussion, written by Lal, White, and Catchpole (2014), represents an interesting and scientifically significant study of the improvement of solar cell technology’s efficiency.
The authors argue that the recent advancement of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technology makes it possible for large-area Si-based tandems to reach 30% efficiency (Lal et al., 2014, p. 1380). The article focuses on the investigation of the qualities and practical use of perovskite-silicon tandem cells. According to Lal et al. (2014), this is the first solar cell technology that is capable of providing 25% efficiency standalone (p. 1380). Moreover, it is also noted that this technology is significantly low-cost. The authors state that the most important feature of perovskite-silicon tandem cells, which explains its significant effectiveness, is wavelength-selective light trapping (Lal et al., 2014). Additionally, it is also stated in the article that the efficiency of tandem silicon cells could be increased by the use of carrier diffusion lengths less than 100 nm.
Thus, it is possible to notice that this article is of high scientific and practical significance because the use of the technology described by the authors can considerably lower the expenses for energy. As traditional resources such as oil and gas are exhausting, new sources of energy that emerge and develop currently provide people with an almost unlimited power supply.
The Use of High-index Nanostructures
The discussion in the previous subsection evidently shows that strong demand for new, cleaner and renewable energy exists in the contemporary world. As was already mentioned, solar cell technology is the focus of numerous modern scientists and scholars. Therefore, it is decided to explore another article on the topic to retrieve a different perspective on the subject matter.
At the beginning of the article, the authors briefly explain the basics of solar cell technology (Brongersma, Cui, & Fan, 2014). Particularly, they focus their attention on high-performance photovoltaic cells, explaining that such cells “use semiconductors to convert sunlight into clean electrical power, and transparent dielectrics or conductive oxides as antireflection coatings” (Brongersma et al., 2014, p. 451). It is then observed that, due to the high refractive index of the materials from which these cells constitute, high-index materials in a planar form are not very suitable for use because they produce a considerably strong undesired reflection of sunlight while they are in use (Brongersma et al., 2014). Therefore, the authors conclude that it is essential to implement the use of high-index nanostructures in constructing new solar cells. It could be observed that the development of technology and research in the field of subwavelength light manipulation became considerably rapid in recent times. There are numerous technologies that are either in development or could be already used in practice. Thus, it is possible to predict that in the near future, the light will become the primary source of energy (electricity primarily).
Recent Research in the Field of Transformational Optics
Further, it is also of high importance to dwell upon the investigation of transformational optics (TO), another very perspective area of scientific study related to light. The article under consideration for this section, written by Xu and Chen (2015), studies questions and issues related to conformal transformational optics, which is a branch too. This article represents particular interest for this paper because Xu and Chen (2015) argue in their article that, even though it is largely accepted that light travel in a strictly straight path, the distribution and propagation of light is not as linear. As an example, the authors mention that the reflection of a pen placed in a cup of water will continue bent due to the refraction of light caused by the breaking of translation symmetry. Further, it is argued in the article that it is possible to use conformal mapping to manipulate light propagation (Xu & Chen, 2015). The practical use of this approach is considerably wide: for example, the authors mention that it is possible to create very powerful geodesic lenses. It is also of high importance to notice an evident connection of this article with the topic of the previous section because Xu and Chen (2015) also concern the question of the material’s refractive index and issues related to it. Thus, it could be concluded that studying the phenomenon of light can help in numerous areas of science and practice. The following two sections serve as the evidence for this argument.
The Application of Light to 3D Technologies
The next article under discussion is another evident example of the light’s numerous features that could be used very differently. Tian and Waller (2015) explore the use of light in 3D modeling. They argue that “realizing high resolution across large volumes is challenging for 3D imaging techniques with high-speed acquisition” (Tian & Waller, 2015). In order to combine high-speed acquisition and high resolution, the authors decided to employ such techniques as geometric optics light field refocusing, phase retrieval, and incorporation of dark-field images to achieve the lateral resolution (Tian & Waller, 2015). Overall, the authors designed a new method of developing 3D images. They used an LED microscope in order to retrieve data that was necessary for their research. It is possible to conclude that, by the employment of this method, scientists can achieve rapid scanning of angles by LED array illumination. Also, as it is stated by Tian and Waller (2015), “the method is label-free and stain-free” (p. 110). Thus, it could be efficiently used to observe live samples in biology.
The Study of Light in the Context of Microbiology
Since the previous section observed the utility of light-based technologies for biological studies, it is appropriate to mention another article, which dwells upon the investigation of how bacteria use micro-optics to sense light direction (Schuergers et al., 2016). The authors state that bacterial phototaxis was well recognized in science even a century ago; however, the particular patterns by which microorganisms detected the direction of light were unclear until very recent time. In general, the authors represent a profound and detailed analysis in the field of microbiology. The article has immense scientific potential. In particular, it is possible to mention that recent discoveries in the area of biologic micro-optics would help to develop new ways to improve current micro-optical technologies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is essential to state that the primary topic of this research paper is significantly wide. Therefore, it could be noted that this study provides a brief overview of several important perspectives on the use of the phenomenon of light in contemporary science. The development of solar cell technology appears to be one of the most important areas of concern and development in the modern world because traditional natural resources are running out. Also, it is evident that the phenomenon of light could be efficiently used in every area connected to optics.
References
Brongersma, M. L., Cui, Y., & Fan, S. (2014). Light management for photovoltaics using high-index nanostructures. Nature Materials, 13(5), 451-460.
Lal, N. N., White, T. P., & Catchpole, K. R. (2014). Optics and light trapping for tandem solar cells on silicon. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 4(6), 1380-1386.
Tian, L., & Waller, L. (2015). The 3D intensity and phase imaging from light field measurements in an LED array microscope. Optica, 2(2), 104-111.
Schuergers, N., Lenn, T., Kampmann, R., Meissner, M. V., Esteves, T., Temerinac-Ott, M.,… Wilde, A. (2016). Cyanobacteria use micro-optics to sense light direction. Elife, 5, 1-16.
Walmsley, I. (2015). Light: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Xu, L., & Chen, H. (2015). Conformal transformation optics. Nature Photonics, 9(1), 15-23.