Indian Researchers Found Material That Transforms Infrared Light Into Renewable Energy

To put things into perspective, although infrared radiation is invisible to humans, they can nevertheless feel its heat. Infrared radiation is used by those snazzy night vision goggles that you usually see in movies to let people see in the dark. And now such light might be transformed into renewable energy.

The government press statement stated that the new substance, ScN, is beneficial for "solar and thermal energy harvesting and for optical communications devices" since it can emit, detect, and control infrared light. To accomplish this, the researchers turned to a phenomena known as "polariton excitations," reported India Times

A press release was released which mentioned that in order to accomplish this, K. C. Maurya and colleagues have used a phenomena known as polariton excitations, which happens in tailored materials when light combines with either the collective free electron oscillations or the polar lattice vibrations.