Electrical and Computer Engineering assistant professor Susanna Thon received an NSF EAGER grant for her project titled “Finite-Absorption-Bandwidth Materials for Cost-Effective Multijunction Photovoltaics.” The project seeks to build a new class of flexible materials that only absorb in the infrared region of the solar spectrum while transmitting visible light by using semiconductor particles with optical properties that depend on their nano- and micro-scale structures. Specifically, the goal is to make photonic crystals, structures in which certain frequency ranges of light cannot propagate, in strongly absorbing colloidal quantum dot films, to be used in color-tuned and transparent solar cells. The proposed work has the potential to address broad societal goals in the development of more efficient renewable energy technologies, as alternatives to polluting and unsustainable fossil fuels, by developing lightweight, inexpensive, and flexible solar energy harvesting materials.