Liquid Metal Solar Photovoltaic Concentrator
IBM solar research efforts discover breakthrough in photovoltaics technology by concentrating solar power. A record amount of power (230 watts) have been concentrated on a centimeter square solar cell. The cell then converts the solar
energy into 70 watts of usable electrical power. The results have seen about five times the electrical power density of typical solar cells, using this concentrator technology in solar farms. ...
... "The trick lies in IBM's ability to cool the tiny solar cell. Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small area generates enough heat to melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced first hand in their experiments. But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips, the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius. " ...Via IBM: Breakthrough In Solar Farm Technology
Liquid Metal: "The IBM research team developed a system that achieved breakthrough results by coupling a commercial solar cell to an advanced IBM liquid metal thermal cooling system using methods developed for the microprocessor industry. Specifically, the IBM team used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept low. The IBM liquid metal solution offers the best thermal performance available today, at low costs, and the technology was successfully developed by IBM to cool high power computer chips earlier. "