Living Car Free - Anti-reflection material - promise for solar cells/energy capture?

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has created the world’s first material that reflects virtually no light. Reporting in the March issue of Nature Photonics, they describe an optical coating made from the material that enables vastly improved control over the basic properties of light. The research could open the door to much brighter LEDs, more efficient solar cells, and a new class of “smart” light sources that adjust to specific environments, among many other potential applications.
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1956

Dumb question of the day: how come we can see it?

Dumb question of the day: how come we can see it?

Because it still reflects light. It's at 1.05 on the spectrum (window glass is 1.45) but not 0.

I don't remember the url, but another team of Engineers invented somthing similar.
Instead of depositing nano-molecules like this team, they etched the surface with acid, leaving tiny pits about 4 nanometers wide and 5-7 nanometers deep.
Their goal is a different type of photovoltaic. They plan to stack the photovoltaics (like lead plates in a battery) and fill the container with Tritium, a radioactive substance that glows.
They cited compactness as a reason for using tritium rather than sunlight. They plan to stack ten of these photovoltaics per container, saving lots of surface area.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1991iece.confQ...3W


I came across several sites promoting this technology. Apparently many researchers are investigating this method of generating electricity.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5605171-claims.html

Here's another.

Just do a two-word search : tritium photovoltaic

Some of the results are PDF, so I didn't want to link them on account of bandwidth.

Cool. I have a keychain at home with a small rod of tritium embedded in it; it really does glow all the time...