U.S. researcher's method of upconverting light shows promising future

HOUSTON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- A researcher in Rice University, U.S. Texas State, found a way to "upconvert" light, which may make solar cells more efficient and disease-targeting nanoparticles more effective.

According to a news release published on Monday by Rice University, experiments led by Gururaj Naik, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, combined plasmonic metals and semiconducting quantum wells to boost the frequency of light, changing its color.

In a nanoscale prototype Naik developed as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, custom-designed pylons that were struck by green light produced a higher-energy blue glow.

Efficient upconversion of light could let solar cells turn otherwise-wasted infrared sunlight into electricity or help light-activated nanoparticles treat diseased cells, Naik said.

Naik's work at Stanford was inspired by the groundbreaking work of professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander at Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics.

The work appears in the American Chemical Society's Nano Letters. Co-authors of the paper are Alex Welch, Justin Briggs and Michelle Solomon, all from Stanford.