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

I see people talking about IR light for water heaters, but I do not think that it could be used for electricity (directly) as IR light doesn’t excite electrons but causes molecular bonds to vibrate. There’s energy to be obtained from light outside the visible spectrum, but UV/Visible light is where electron excitation takes place, which when coupled with photovoltaic materials (effectively semi-conductors) is the only reasonable way to get electricity.