Photovoltaic displays- Recycling its own light

A group of scientists at the University of California claim that they have developed a method to that allow displays of mobile phones and tablets to feedback with the light unused.

The screens of the pocket devices caused the 80 and 90% of the power consumption of batteries. However up to a 75% of the light emitted by our displays is completely wasted.

The structure of an LCD display has two polarized layers between which there are the molecules of liquid crystal. These layers allow the light to pass through them selectively, partially blocking or filtering it according to the contents of the display.

The idea of this group of researchers was to replace these polarized layers by photovoltaic polarized layers that, literally, harvest the remaining light and turn it back to the battery.

The invention would even allow the whole display to work as a solar cell, capturing also the ambient light in repose. The results of this research will be published in September in a new edition of the magazine Advanced Materials.