The applications of ultrathin, conductive films such as those made of graphene have many applications, but it’s been thought their efficacy is limited to absorbing only half of the incidental light at best. A research group in China has now shown that absorption can be as high as 82.8% at light grazing angles nearly parallel to the film. This could not only significantly improve design efficiencies but sheds light on light-matter interactions at sizes much lower than the light’s wavelength. Their work has been published in Physical Review Letters.
Graphene ultrathin films, as thin as one carbon atom (about 0.34 nanometers, 300,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper) have many applications: flexible and transparent electronics, energy storage and batteries, solar cells and photovoltaics, sensors and high-speed electronics and more, where they absorb light.
While such films allow for miniaturizing devices and reducing their weight, their extreme thinness has led to the characterization that they are limited to absorbing only half of the incoming light.









