Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 366 Breaking through the Limit
"Actually, the Hubble Telescope is quite good, after all, its error is very small, and the lens itself is a very fine thing."

Even more outrageous is that during the first Apollo moon landing, Buzz and Neil almost didn't make it out. Do you know why?

Li Xiaoman asked, "Why?"

She really didn't know anything about these kinds of secrets and anecdotes.

"NASA designed the hatch to face inwards. The space inside the cabin is already small, and the astronauts' spacesuits are very bulky and take up the entire space inside the cabin. If you open it inwards, the door will almost be impossible to open."

If they can't open the door, they won't even be able to get back.

Logically, this should have been tested on day one, but in reality, no one noticed the problem until the actual moon landing when Neil opened the door and realized something was wrong.

Reality does not require logic.

The Xiaomi logo wasn't noticed, and maybe no one really did. Everyone was careless. Maybe someone noticed it, but they didn't think it was a big deal, and then everyone thought it was no big deal, or that if it was a problem, the leader would point it out, or someone in the next step would point it out.

So much so that in the end no one pointed out that this was the problem.

Reality doesn't require logic, but aside from everything else, Americans are just too good at identifying and solving problems.

"To be able to get hold of Mr. Lei so quickly and force him to delete the clarification announcement that had already been issued, that's truly impressive."

General Aerospace also issued a statement announcing that it had secured investment from Xiaomi. However, conservative lawmakers questioned whether this violated the Wolfe Clause, given that the VIPER lunar rover originated from NASA.

In the Democratic-controlled White House, this is a trivial problem that can be easily overlooked.

After the astronauts returned to Earth, Old Deng held a celebration ceremony for them at the White House and awarded them the corresponding medals of honor.

Old Deng was indeed very happy, after all, this was an unprecedented breakthrough. He had completed the moon landing during his term of office. The Artemis program had been proposed since Obama's time but had never been successful. Now he had answered the question: when exactly would America be able to land on the moon?

Although this uses Chinese technology, if you look at American media, you'll find that all the media outlets are silent about it, as if it never happened.

Everyone is talking about the success of diversity. Compared to the moon landing in the 60s, this time not only did a female astronaut land on the moon, but she was also a Black woman. This is progress of the times and a symbol of significant progress in diversity and equality.

The two women, one Black and one White, achieved great success in both their careers and finances, with sponsorships from various brands pouring in.

The white male astronaut who waited for their return in the command module, like the source of the technology, was overwhelmed by public opinion, as if he were not a member of the moon landing trio at all.

“Mr. Buzz, what has become of our country?” Colonel John Smith was vacationing in Florida and staying at Buzz’s house.

Buzz really liked the new American astronaut who had just landed on the moon. He had fallen out with his children and wife, and he was more than happy for John Smith to come.

“I’m not jealous, I just find it strange that everything from newspapers to television to social media is focused on the fact that we sent women to the moon, we sent Black people to the moon,” John Smith said dejectedly.

Aldrin shook his head: "I don't know either. I think our country is definitely sick, but whether this disease can be cured or not, I have no way of giving you an answer."

The Democrats believe they have won a major victory and taken another significant step forward in pluralism. Little do they know, two dark clouds have already appeared in the sky above the edifice of pluralism dominated by the Democrats:

One flower is called Big T, and the other looks like Musk, but it's actually Twitter.

These two dark clouds will turn into a torrential downpour in the upcoming presidential election, sweeping across the world from America and shattering the narrative logic constructed by the Democratic Party in the past.

“Nanping, once this step is taken, the world order will be completely restructured.”

The blackboard has a calculus formula on it:

After Li Xiaoman left, Song Nanping came to Lin Ran's office.

This matter was of great importance, so Lin Ran didn't even consult Pony Ma, but instead sought out Song Nanping.

He knew that Song Nanping was from Yanjing, which meant that the other party was absolutely trustworthy.

"Professor, what is this?" Song Nanping's heart was pounding.

The idea of ​​a comprehensive restructuring of the world order would be considered boastful if anyone else said it.

But this was Lin Ran, a man who had done the impossible, so naturally he believed what the other party said was true.

The formula in front of me looks very complicated.

"Nanping, do you know why the photoelectric conversion efficiency limit of solar cells is only 33.7%?" Lin Ran asked.

Song Nanping smiled wryly and said, "Professor, how could I possibly know?"

"Because of the Shockley-Queisser Limit, this limit restricts the potential of single-junction solar cells."

The photovoltaic cells we are currently mass-producing have not yet reached this limit. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells that are generally mass-produced on the market is around 20%.

To approach this limit of 33.7, we can transform it into a quantum statistical optimization problem with boundary conditions, namely, a single junction and an equilibrium state.

Once this mathematical problem is solved and the optimal solution is found, we can naturally find the optimal structure to allow the photovoltaic cell to achieve the best results.

"The photoelectric conversion efficiency has now increased from 20% to 30%. What do you think this means, Nanping?"

Song Nanping murmured, "This means that photovoltaic power generation will become much more important in China's power sector, and it means that we can further promote clean energy."

This means that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles can be further accelerated.

Lin Ran nodded. "What if we can break through this limit?"
Is it possible to exceed the 33% limit and break the boundary conditions?

What if we could increase it by 50% directly, without significantly increasing costs compared to the past?

"This means that global electricity prices will drop significantly, electricity prices will be reshaped, photovoltaics can be deployed in more scenarios, and the scenario of photovoltaics replacing traditional fossil fuel power generation will be established instantly."

Energy security will shift from oil and gas producing areas to high-efficiency solar modules and upstream raw materials, significantly reducing the importance of the Middle East and giving us new diplomatic leverage. Song Nanping understood what Lin Ran meant by "restructuring."

Controlled nuclear fusion is indeed a technology that can reshape everything, but if photovoltaics can achieve a breakthrough, it will also be a technology that can reshape everything.

According to statistics from the International Energy Agency, the cost of photovoltaic power generation in China is 0.033 USD/kWh, while the cost of coal is 0.068 USD/kWh and the cost of natural gas is between 0.10 and 0.14 USD/kWh.

Therefore, some people may ask, if photovoltaic power generation has the lowest cost, why not use photovoltaics entirely? Because photovoltaics rely on solar output, there is no output at night, and the power generation drops sharply on cloudy and rainy days.

If photovoltaic power needs to be supplied around the clock, it needs to have long-term energy storage.

Energy storage costs three times the cost of starting it.

Meanwhile, photovoltaic power generation is concentrated in the west, while the power consumption center is in the southeast coastal area, and the ultra-high voltage power transmission capacity is limited.

However, if the cost of photovoltaics can be reduced by another 2.5%, then the situation will be different.

"Yes, I have solved the quantum many-body transport optimization problem in non-equilibrium states, which means we have found a mathematically feasible solution."

In this new, precisely designed electronic density of states, phonon spectrum, and light absorption cross section, the energy conversion path of photons will no longer be limited by thermal losses and single excitons.

To put it more bluntly, this design breaks through the Shockley Quayser limit, achieving an efficiency of 50%, and only requires process optimization without the need for any new materials.

The door to a new world is about to open.

"Awesome." Song Nanping had no other thought after hearing this; it really was awesome.

"Professor, so you called me here to inform the people in Yanjing that we can do some financial operations, and also to make some resource allocations and energy policy adjustments? Maybe we need to establish a new large state-owned enterprise to promote the replacement of photovoltaics?" Song Nanping continued.

Lin Ran waved his hand: "It's a bit early for that. What I mean is that I have solved the problem at the theoretical level, so I need China to help organize a group of sufficiently credible professors to help me verify it at the experimental level."

And to streamline the large-scale engineering process.

Of course, China can plan ahead and engage in some capital operations.

This requires these scholars to conduct closed-door experiments, which can take anywhere from three months to six months.

Moreover, what I need are young and promising scholars who can conduct experiments, preferably young scholars. Academicians haven't done experiments themselves for a hundred or two hundred years, so let's forget about them.

I need to rely on the authorities to coordinate and plan this matter.

Young and promising? Song Nanping, who had spent a lot of time online, only gleaned two words from that: "a piece of trash!"
What we need are capable engineers who can conduct experiments, not just incompetent leaders.

"Understood, I'll make arrangements right away."

Lin Ran continued, "We'll also need to trouble Beijing to coordinate the venue and other arrangements. Ideally, it would be best to stay in Shanghai; I don't really want to go all the way to Beijing."

Song Nanping nodded and said, "Okay."

As for why they didn't hire people from within Apollo Technologies to conduct the experiments, it's because they lacked the necessary talent in that area.

Apollo Technology itself does not engage in photovoltaic material research and development.

In China, universities are the ones that do the most research on this kind of thing. Perovskite solar cells are pushing the limits in various ways. Over the past decade, perovskite has been the richest source for publishing papers, and almost every university's materials department has experts working on perovskite.

Thanks to this, quite a few young scholars have applied for the Young Thousand Talents Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

If you want to do this kind of work, relying on the Chinese government to coordinate it will be the most efficient approach.

Lin Ran has no intention of doing all the business himself or putting all the profitable business into Apollo Technology's basket.

The project led by Lin Ran is a photovoltaic project that has the potential to change the world order, so the majority of attendees will definitely be young scholars from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Shanghai Jiaotong University has a lot of people doing this kind of work.

Jiang Tailiang and Zhao Yibing were summoned, and of course, they weren't the only ones summoned. About fifty people from Jiaotong University came, and out of the total of about two hundred people, Jiaotong University accounted for more than a quarter.

We're all working in similar fields and know each other, just to varying degrees.

Jiang Tailiang and Zhao Yibing had a good relationship; they had co-authored many papers. Being one so cool and the other so cold, they naturally became closer. Because it was already the end of the year, and the Lunar New Year was just around the corner, the institute first urgently notified them to prepare clothing and be prepared not to go home for the holiday, as there was an urgent and important task at hand.

This puzzled them greatly, because logically, those who work with materials shouldn't be assigned such tasks.

They had not taken on any classified projects.

Then they were assigned to an unusual place in the suburbs of Shanghai. It was only after greeting each other that they realized there were about two hundred people there.

The next day, in the huge lecture hall, Lin Ran stood in front of the podium, and everyone suddenly realized what was happening.

I wondered which deity had the ability to gather us together. It was the God of Burning, so it's no surprise.

The youngest academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, he is certainly capable of this, especially since he is highly regarded and hailed as the greatest hope for scientific and technological breakthroughs in China.

Zhao Yibing said in a low voice, "It's not surprising that Professor Lin is here. But does he have some important news to announce?"
Or is there some major project that needs to be tackled?

"The photovoltaic modules of the lunar base, I guess? After all, one of the most important conditions for a lunar supercomputer is energy, isn't it?"

On the moon, if you're in a shadowy area with no sunlight, or in sunlight, you'll definitely encounter lunar dust and solar wind. Therefore, ensuring the stability, quality, and lifespan of your photovoltaic modules becomes crucial.

But none of them guessed correctly.

Lin Ran stood up and said, "Everyone, we are short on time to get you all here, so we need your cooperation. Let's start with some theoretical knowledge, and then I will slowly explain what I need your help with."

As we all know, what we see now are single-junction solar cells. Some multi-junction solar cells are essentially multiple single-junction cells with different band gaps stacked together, so that each one is responsible for absorbing photons of different energy ranges, thereby reducing thermal loss and transmission loss.

From a physical perspective, it does not fundamentally change the energy conversion principle of a single junction; it only breaks the Shockley-Quyther limit in a statistically average sense.

The efficiency of each single-junction layer is still subject to the Shockley-Quyther limit.

I know that some of you here have achieved similar results and published papers. In fact, you have used physical structures to bypass the most difficult problem.

What I'm going to talk about today is how to directly eliminate the Shockley-Quyther limit within a single junction, solving this problem through nonequilibrium quantum many-body transport optimization.

Lin Ran began writing on the whiteboard behind him:

"The mathematical essence of the Shockley-Quiser limit is a variational optimization problem constrained by the spectral distribution. The physical input is the quantum absorption rule, and the final mathematical result is this limit, which is the efficiency extremum."

But we now need to decouple this problem, to break the limit, to make the limit no longer exist.

"Did you understand?" Jiang Tailiang asked after returning to the dormitory that evening.

The dormitory was shared by two people, and everyone got along well, so Jiang Tailiang naturally shared a room with Zhao Yibing.

Lin Ran addressed three questions in total.

The first is to model the photon absorption process in a quantum many-body system as a nonlinear probabilistic optimization of many-body state transitions, and solve the nonequilibrium quantum dynamics equations for this strongly coupled electron-hole system that maximizes the multi-exciton yield.

The second is an optimization problem of the time-dependent quantum Boltzmann equation, which decouples the rate equation of electron-phonon scattering and ultimately makes the scattering time longer than the carrier collection time.

The third is spectral reconstruction, which is the frequency conversion optimization problem of nonlinear optical processes.

Finally, we move on to the nonequilibrium quantum many-body transport optimization problem.

Based on the answers to the above questions, Lin Ran finally provided a precise value for the material. The structure designed according to this precise value can bypass the Shockley-Quyther limit and achieve higher photoelectric conversion efficiency.

"I didn't understand," Zhao Yibing replied.

"No, you didn't understand. Why were you nodding so much during class? I thought you understood." Jiang Tailiang finally breathed a sigh of relief. I thought I was the only one who didn't understand.

Zhao Yibing said, "This is not contradictory. I am expressing my appreciation for Professor Lin's achievements."

If I could understand that, would I be an associate professor of materials science? I'd already be a professor!
If only my theoretical foundation weren't a bit weak.

His theoretical foundation, or to put it more bluntly, his mathematical foundation, is a bit weak.

“I didn’t understand either, so how can I prove that the professor is right?” Jiang Tailiang asked.

Zhao Yibing stretched out his hands: "To do experiments, huh? Isn't the reason you brought us here to do experiments?"

I took a look, and those who came were basically all skilled lab technicians.

Jiang Tailiang nodded: "I guessed so, but if that's the case, why tell us so much? Just tell us the result directly."

Zhao Yibing guessed, "It might be a selection process, selecting talented individuals from among us!"

Jiang Tailiang was initially excited, thinking that following Lin Ran would offer a better future than staying at Jiaotong University.

He immediately became dejected, saying, "I can't even understand what I'm saying. It seems I'm not cut out for this."

The next day, Lin Ran said:
"I believe everyone has a general idea of ​​what we're going to do."

After all, there is a long way to go from breaking through the principle to mass-producible components, that is, industrial production.

I need everyone's help to complete a monolithic device with 50% photoelectric conversion efficiency in the lab and find a method for engineering mass production.

Many of the young scholars in the classroom began to raise their hands.

Lin Ran lit one. "Do you have any questions?"

"Professor Lin, the single-chip device in the laboratory is not difficult. We should be able to build it in a few months."

Everyone present nodded in agreement.

The lab can be adjusted gradually; it's just a matter of time.

A single-chip device with a conversion rate exceeding 50% is an achievement that would be considered Nobel Prize-worthy, let alone a scientific one.

Lin Ran's theoretical solution to the Shockley-Quisser limit alone is enough to earn him a Nobel Prize.

However, the issue of mass production is too big to be resolved in just a year or two.

"In terms of engineering approaches, we need to gradually explore the availability of materials, what materials to use, and the non-equilibrium lifespan."

In mathematical theory, it can be assumed that the non-equilibrium electronic state lasts for hundreds of picoseconds, but in actual materials, it may thermalize in tens of femtoseconds.

In terms of device structure design, an extremely fast carrier extraction mechanism is required to collect electrons before they lose energy. Electrodes, interface defects, and photon management must all be coordinated.

Then industrialization will also face the challenges of cost, lifespan, and environmental stability.

Lin Ran nodded: "Of course, I know what you're saying. The first step is from mathematical solutions to single-chip devices in the laboratory, and the second step is from laboratory devices to industrial mass-production components."

If I only need to do the first step, why would I need two hundred people? Why don't I just go directly to the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for collaboration?
If I publish in Science, I can probably list up to fifty people as co-authors, right?

Regarding the second step you just mentioned, from laboratory devices to industrial mass production, I have found the mathematically optimal solution for each stage. I have already completed the theoretical verification. All you need to do is provide feedback to me from the experimental stage.

At first, everyone was skeptical, but as Lin Ran said, he had already solved the theoretical optimal value for all the major nodes.

The entire process was like pressing the accelerator button.

"I finally understand why Apollo Technology, under the leadership of President Lin, was able to achieve a moon landing in just over a year. It's terrifying."

During my free time today, I was chatting with a colleague in my group, and he said that General Manager Lin is like someone with a cheat code.

Generally, the path by which our scientific community transforms industry is similar to that of theoretical breakthroughs many years ago, followed by experimental breakthroughs from those theoretical breakthroughs. After these breakthroughs accumulate, industry finds some usable papers or results, and then proceeds with industrial-scale mass production.

This process, which is intermittent, may take decades and involve the hard work of countless researchers.

Because there are thousands of achievements at the same time, no one knows what is important. What is important at the time may not be important in the future. What may be an unknown paper at the time may shine in the industry in the future.

Nobody knows how this road will turn out.

People find treasures in the old documents of their predecessors, and then use those treasures to forge their own divine weapons.

The current CEO, Mr. Lin, is essentially brute-forcing the problem from the applied mathematics level, showing us the whole picture, telling us what's useful, which direction to take, and leading us directly down a straight path.

"This feeling is truly amazing. With such a cheat code, it's no wonder the Americans can't compete in the aerospace field," Zhao Yibing exclaimed.

In 1917, Einstein proposed the theory of stimulated emission, which is the core principle of lasers, but at the time it was just an abstract concept in physics.

It wasn't until 1960 that Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in the laboratory, which was then considered to have no practical use.

In the 70s, lasers began to be used for silicon chip etching and industrial cutting and welding. Countless researchers participated in optimization and overcame stability problems.

It took a full fifty years to go from obscure academic papers to technologies covering the fields of medicine, communications, and chips.

It took more than fifty years, including for transistors, to evolve from the concept of field-effect transistors to semiconductors.

Now, the young scholars involved in this project are like they've been given an accelerator; the theory is applied directly, and they are given models and optimal solutions derived from the theory.

All you need to do is conduct the experiments.

This is an unprecedented experience.

As for being left here and unable to go home for the New Year, being kept in a highly secretive and isolated from the world, it all seems bearable in the face of the great cause to be undertaken.

They also knew that if they achieved results, the country would certainly reward them handsomely.

If the associate professor can drop the "associate" part, then the young teachers who are on a "promotion-or-leave" basis can stay, and it's not unreasonable for a full professor to receive a first-class collective science and technology progress award, right?

(End of this chapter)