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The inventors have discovered a new way to generate ultrafast back-gating, by leveraging the surface band bending inherent to many semiconductor materials. This new architecture consists of a standard bulk semiconductor material and a layered material on the surface. Optical pulses generate picosecond time-varying electric fields on the surface material. The inventors have successfully applied this method to a quantum well Rashba system, as this is considered today one of the most promising candidates for spin-based devices, such as the Datta Das spin-transistor. The technology can induce an ultrafast gate and drive time-dependent Rashba and quantum well dynamics never observed before, with switching faster than 10GHz. This approach minimizes lithography and will enable light-driven electronic and spintronics devices such as transistors, spin-transistors, and photo-controlled Rashba circuitry. This method can be applied with minimal effort to any two-dimensional material, for both exfoliated and molecular beam epitaxy grown samples. Electric field gating is one of the most fundamental tuning knobs for all modern solid-state technology, and is the foundation for many solid-state devices such as transistors. Current methods for in-situ back-gated devices are difficult to fabricate, introduce unwanted contaminants, and are unsuited for picosecond time-resolved electric field studies.  

Prof. Ming Lee Tang and her colleagues from the University of California, Riverside have developed a promising new material for photonic devices utilizing hybrid materials composed of inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals and organic acene molecules. The material allows for photon upconversion, a promising wavelength shifting technology for photon management. This multi-photon process has potential applications in biological imaging, photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Regarding solar energy systems, the conversion of low energy near-infrared (NIR) photons to higher energy photons is particularly appealing, considering NIR radiation comprises 53% of the solar spectrum. Current solar panels are greatly limited in efficiency due to this. Reshaping the solar spectrum to match the optical properties of common semiconductors will allow the efficient use of all incident light. This holds the potential to solve the largest issue that current solar panel systems face.

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Many industries, such as solar cells and energy storage, will be greatly benefited by high-gain step-up/step-down converters.UCI researchers have developed a family of hybrid boosting converters (HBC) that combine a base bipolar voltage multiplier (BVM) and one of several possible inductive switching cores to address various converter functionalities.

Switched capacitor converters, which provide high-gain voltage conversion, have drawbacks that have limited their use to specific applications. UCI researchers have developed a family of two-switch boosting switched-capacitor converters (TBSC) that enables the use of switched-capacitor converters in low cost and small-size applications as well as on-chip integration.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have developed a novel multi-point, multi-access thermal energy storage system.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis and Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new design and fabrication method for high pressure heat exchangers (HX) using additive manufacturing (AM). This method would allow for the creation of primary heat exchanger (PHX) systems with minimal energy loss.

   Researchers at UCI have, for the first time, developed a method for modeling the efficiencies of artificial photosynthetic devices containing multiple light absorbers. As these devices more closely parallel naturally occurring photosynthesis, they offer higher performance than standard single-absorber devices.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry have developed an approach for synthesizing nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with high yield.

Researchers at UCLA have developed an underground drilled shaft concept for storage of hydrogen or other gases.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed Perovskite/Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (PVSK/CIGS) tandem photovoltaic devices with ~22% efficiency.

Researchers at UCI have developed a compact device for the rapid desalination of water which is driven entirely by renewable solar energy.

Silicon photovoltaic (“Si-PV”) modules currently dominate the solar energy market. Increased progress into Si-PV efficiency enhancements combined with historically low module costs aim to decrease the overall Levelized Cost of Electricity (“LCOE”) to a point competitive with non-renewable energy sources. Despite recent LCOE reductions, Si-PV technology remains economically inferior to fossil fuels. Additionally, flat-plate Si solar modules generally require geographical locations with high direct normal incidence (“DNI”) sunlight conditions in order to maintain module performance. Both the strict DNI requirement and the high LCOE of Si-PV cells ultimately limit the dissemination of solar power into the global energy market. A solution for the capturing of diffuse sunlight includes the use of optical concentrators.  One class of optical concentrators includes luminescent solar concentrators (“LSCs”).  Luminescent solar concentrators have garnered interest due to their ability to utilize diffuse light and their potential for use in architectural applications such as large area power-generating windows. However, LSCs have not yet reached commercialization for photovoltaic power generation, largely due to their comparatively low power conversion efficiencies (“PCEs”) and lack of scalability.     Researchers at UC Berkeley and other educational institutions have developed luminescent solar concentrators that  can be designed to minimize photon thermalization losses and incomplete light trapping using various novel components and techniques.

The invention is a specialized membrane that absorbs solar energy to directly drive desalination of salt water. Compared to state of the art devices, the invention is capable of bypassing the inefficient conversion from electronic energy to ionic energy, saving up to 85% of the energy required by other state of the art electrodialysis cells.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a novel design for a solar power converter. The system uses an efficient selective absorber to harvest solar radiation.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a novel method of desalination without an external power source.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed a novel lead halide perovskite solar cell with a metal oxide charge transport layer.