Smartphone screens with built-in solar cells

An ingenious researcher at the London Centre for Nanotechnology has managed to squeeze a bunch of photovoltaic (solar power) cells into a very interesting location: Behind your smartphone’s display.

According to Arman Ahnood, who unveiled his findings at the Materials Research Society late last year, only 36% of the light produced by an OLED display is projected straight out; the rest is wasted, either as scattered light or bleeding from the edge of the display.

In a fairly basic...