{"id":758,"date":"2024-10-23T03:37:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T23:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/?post_type=project&#038;p=758"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:03:13","slug":"research-on-confined-light-and-advanced-photovoltaics-at-yerevan-state-university-and-alikhanyan-national-lab","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/project\/research-on-confined-light-and-advanced-photovoltaics-at-yerevan-state-university-and-alikhanyan-national-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Research on Confined Light and Advanced Photovoltaics at Yerevan State University and Alikhanyan National Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"758\" class=\"elementor elementor-758\" data-elementor-post-type=\"project\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9e3980a e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"9e3980a\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f695de1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f695de1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The optical response of materials is predicated on light-matter\u00a0interactions in free space, subject to the laws of conservation of energy\u00a0and momentum. Since the momentum of free space photons is\u00a0negligible in comparison to that of electrons, optical transitions are only\u00a0allowed among states that are vertically aligned in momentum space.\u00a0This is the reason for the poor absorption of so called indirect semi-\u00a0conductors, where the valence and conduction bands are misaligned.\u00a0Silicon, which is the material of choice for photovoltaic solar cells, is a\u00a0prime example.\u00a0<\/p><p>In a recent article, arXiv:2304.14521, it was\u00a0demonstrated that light-matter interactions can be fundamentally\u00a0changed using nanometrically confined photons. The momentum of the\u00a0photon can be increased by 2-3 orders of magnitude by confining it on\u00a0plasmonic nanoparticles, whereby the absorption of solar radiation in\u00a0silicon can be enhanced by 2-3 orders of magnitude. This paves the way\u00a0for thin-film Si-solar cells at a significant reduction in cost and materials\u00a0consumption.\u00a0<\/p><p>To explore the concept and its implementation, a theoretical effort<br \/>was launched at YSU, led by Drs. Vram Mughnetsyan and Aram Manaselyan,<br \/>and supported by Hovhannes Haroyan, Armen Harutyunyan, and Professor<br \/>Khachig Nerkararyan; and an experimental effort was launched at the<br \/>Alikhanyan National Laboratory, led by Drs. Narek Margaryan and Eduard<br \/>Aleksanyan. Prof. V. Ara Apkarian of UC Irvine, who is a coauthor of<br \/>the original work, was advising the two groups and the effort<br \/>facilitated and financed by the ARPA Institute.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pioneering research in confined light and advanced photovoltaics for a sustainable energy future.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":759,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"inline_featured_image":false},"class_list":["post-758","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3816,"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/758\/revisions\/3816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arpainstitute.org\/hy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}