Energy harvester: new rectenna converts high energy photons to DC current

https://www.graphene-info.com/metal-insulator-graphene-diodes-enable-terahertz-rectennas-flexible-substrates

Antenna converts incoming photons into moving electrons. Rectenna is an antenna directly coupled to a diode. Diode only allows the electrons to move in one direction--> DC current. New device converts terahertz and optical photons to DC current. "compatible with conventional thin-film technology – and with high-throughput... possibility of using rectennas arrays as power supplies for wearable devices or self-powering sensors"

Related:

Solar Rectennas: Analysis and Design (2019)

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/69146 "Pro: harvests photons from the whole solar spectrum, material widely available as thin films, inexpensive compared to conventional solar cells... Con: time constant must be ~0.1 fs (difficult), leakage current of the diode < 1 μA (difficult), strong matching between the impedance of the antenna and the diodes is needed for max power (so paper is mostly theory)"

Integrated photonics meets electron microscopy

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-photonics-electron-microscopy.html

New type of solar cell is being tested in space

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-solar-cell-space.html