We are building the ultimate light-harvesting system by efficient conversion and transport of excitons. This involves spectral and spatial manipulation of the solar spectrum, with downshifting and upconversion to compress broadband sunlight into a narrow band for efficient harvesting by next-generation, solution-processed excitonic solar cells. This theme delivers new light-harvesting concepts and novel, full-spectrum materials for next-generation, low-cost, high-efficiency excitonic light-harvesting devices.

Theme 1 comprises two research platforms; Excitonic Light Management (Platform 1.1) and Solution-Processed Next Generation Photovoltaics (Platform 1.2).

The maximum theoretical efficiency for conversion of light into current for a single solar cell, called the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit, is approximately 30% for silicon-based technology. These platforms seek to design hybrid solar cell systems which can surpass the SQ limit.