Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Keyword
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Semiconducting Nanowire Solar Cells For Enhanced Energy Harvesting, Dong Rip Kim
Semiconducting Nanowire Solar Cells For Enhanced Energy Harvesting, Dong Rip Kim
Link Foundation Energy Fellowship Reports
Solar cells are attractive candidates for generating clean and renewable energy. Nanowires (NWs) due to their unique electrical and optical properties offer new opportunities to solar cells for reduced cost and improved efficiency. Although SiNWs have been already demonstrated as promising solar cell elements1 , to harness the full potential of SiNWs, SiNW solar cells require further characterizations and optimizations, including device integrations of SiNWs and surface treatments of SiNWs. Herein we report three main research results to characterize and optimize the performance of SiNW solar cells: 1) single and tandem axial p-i-n SiNW solar cells, 2) direct growth of …
Road Surface Mirage: A Bunch Of Hot Air?, Zhou Huaichun, Huang Zhifeng, Cheng Qiang, Lu Wei, Qiu Kui, Chen Chen, Hsu Pei-Feng
Road Surface Mirage: A Bunch Of Hot Air?, Zhou Huaichun, Huang Zhifeng, Cheng Qiang, Lu Wei, Qiu Kui, Chen Chen, Hsu Pei-Feng
Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications
The inferior mirage from road surfaces is a common phenomenon, which can be easily seen in everyday life. It has been recognized in the literature as a light refraction phenomenon due to the refractive index gradient caused by the temperature gradient in the air strata above the road surfaces. However, it was also suggested that the mirage is just a phenomenon of specular reflection at grazing incidence. Because of the lack of reasonable and quantitative evidence, the generally accepted light refraction theory has not yet been refuted. Here we show some mirror-like reflection images captured from a road surface stretch …
Advanced Underwater Vehicle Navigation, M. Jordan Stanway
Advanced Underwater Vehicle Navigation, M. Jordan Stanway
Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship Reports
Underwater vehicles–both manned and unmanned–are critical in our efforts to explore and study the depths of the ocean. Most underwater sensors possess a relatively small field of view; this means they must be carried over large distances to achieve high spatial coverage and resolution. The vast amount of data these sensors collect is much more valuable if the location of the vehicle is precisely known at the time the data is collected. This gives rise to the maxim: The data is only as good as the navigation. Navigation remains a challenging problem for underwater vehicles. Fundamental limitations of sensing technology …