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

You could collect lower energy infrared than current commerical panels. The problem is that cells which absorb it will have lower voltages, so you get less power per bit of light. Efficiency of those cells will also be a problem unless you can keep them cold.