The Metamaterial "Star" Solar Battery Unveiled

On May 25th, the world-renowned Russian Science Center celebrated its 50th year anniversary of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) by presenting a new "star battery" technology, which they describe as "revolutionary".

Invented by the scientists at the Scientific Center of Applied Research (SCAR) at JINR, the Star battery was produced on the basis of a new substance to be known as Geteroelectric matter ("heteroelectric" is probably a better translation, or "metamaterial"). It consists of a Geteroelectrical photoelement of high efficiency in the visible and infrared range. It has a Geteroelectrical capacitor with huge capacity while being very compact.

A geterogen substance consists of a carrier and an active element, a nanoparticle of matter which is different from the substance of the carrier. The distance between the nanoparticles is less than the wavelength of an incident electromagnetic wave.

The Geteroelectrics patent is of the 'umbrella' type used in the Russian Federation. Patent No. 2249277 covers 24 fields of scientific research, and "allows driving and transforming the electromagnetic fields, providing the production of devices with forecasting optical, electrical and magnetic properties."

The following patents on the methods and apparatuses using the Geteroelectrical peculiar properties are without parallel in the world:

• Nanoamplifier of electromagnetic radiation (№2266596),
• DC and AC capacitors and internally inherent elements of integral schemes (№2266585),
• mirror (№2265870),
• Method of generation of coherent electromagnetic radiation and dipole nanolaser on its base (№2249278),
• Optical glass (№2209785)
• Photocathode (№2216815)
• Geterogen photoelement (№2217845)
• Photoelement (№2222846)

The optical glass made with Geteroelectric is claimed to have ten times the index of refraction -- a record.

Presently, the weak application of solar energy is due to the following insufficiencies:

• Low efficiency of light conversion into the electrical current (not more 20%).
• No possibility to receive electric power at night, on cloudy days, or within a country with a dark season of short days with low-intensity sunlight (or none, as in the Arctic).
• Absence of high effectiveness, and an ecological safe source of energy accumulation (presently acid accumulators [battery] are used).

None of the above-mentioned insufficiencies is present in the STAR Battery.

The Geteroelectrical photoelement developed by S.C.A.R. at J.I.N.R. is the main component of the STAR BATTERY which possesses the following technical and commercial advantages:

• The efficiency of light transformation in visible range is 54% (A world record today).
• As for infra-red light, the efficiency of reformation, it is 31% higher than the efficiency of a modern solar battery in the visible domain.
• The photocurrent of Geteroelectrical photoelement (GEP) operates at a factor of 4x higher than the modern solar battery.
• The GEP provides a very high efficiency in the dark and during the cloudy periods of a day.
• It is practically on a factor of 4x higher than the modern solar battery in the visible range.
• In the infra-red domain, it is on a factor of 2x higher than the efficiency of the modern solar battery in the visible range.
• The mass of GEP semiconductor material needed to produce one Watt of energy is 1,000 times less than the mass needed in the existing solar photoelements.

The above information indicates that the manufacturing cost of the Geteroelectrical photoelement of the STAR BATTERY will be less than the manufacturing cost of the photoelement of a modern solar battery.