Designer optoelectronics - quantum mechanics for new materials

Designer optoelectronics - quantum mechanics for new materials: "They designed and developed novel transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) to exacting specifications by applying quantum mechanics to predict a material’s optical and electronic properties, fabricating it, and checking their results experimentally.

The results? Completely new TCOs with a wide range of potential applications in sensors, solar cells, smart windows, and dozens of other scientific, commercial and consumer products.

“In the field of optoelectronics, there’s a great need to find better and less costly materials,” says Guy Garry, coordinator of the NATCO project. “The route we took was first to make calculations to find the best way to get the properties that we needed. When we fabricated these materials, we found that their properties were the same as we had calculated.”