Photonic Materials for Energy and Sustainability

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course will provide students with photonic science's perspective on global energy and sustainability. Global warming is the outcome of solar heat gain and radiative heat loss, a balance which has been tilted by excessive CO2 concentrations. Photonic materials science will allow us to re-think the possibilities to harvest, convert, and divert solar energy input while reducing and reusing waste heat. This course will lay the foundations in optic principles, physical origins of materials' optical properties, and various types of light-matter interactions. This theoretical background will be used to introduce applications such as solar cells, thermophotovoltaic cells, radiative cooling, light-emitting diodes, solar geoengineering, and smart building envelopes.