eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

Question

eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

In: 2876

Answer 1

sunlight consists of more than just the visibile light. Silicon solar cells (basically what you get everywhere) are tuned to be best at a specific wavelength (around 600nm), but absorb a spectrum from about 300 nm (UV) til 1200 nm (IR) light. One theoretical limit for these cells is around 33% of all the energy hitting the solar cell.

So yes, more than the visibile spectrum is used to generate electricity, and you can also use other materials to absorb other parts of the spectrum better.