JoVE expands scholarly video publication into physical sciences

As of July 2, 2012, JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) launches the first and only scientific video publication for physics and engineering. The journal is opening a new section, JoVE: Applied Physics, in addition to its current sections in biology and medicine. It will focus on the experimental disciplines within physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, and interdisciplinary fields such as materials science and chemical physics.

Already, submissions for publication in JoVE: Applied Physics have been coming from leading academic institutions around the world, including the California Institute of Technology in California, USA; the Leibniz Institute in Berlin, Germany; and the University of Victoria in British Columba, Canada.

The opening article features a method to fabricate thin-film solar cells from the laboratory of Dr. Sergey Varlamov at the School of Photovoltaics at University of New South Wales in Australia. "One of the major trends in solar energy conversion is reducing the thickness of solar cells. It both saves the expensive semiconductor material and allows more cost-effective manufacturing" explained Dr. Varlamov. Through an alternative approach to light scattering, Dr. Varlamov's lab has demonstrated that they can increase solar cell potential by 45%, while at the same time reducing thickness.

Dr. Varlamov mentioned that "new light-trapping techniques need to be developed now, concurrently with reduction of commercial solar cell thickness and introduction of new thin solar cell technologies", and that JoVE "provided an opportunity to demonstrate both the poly-Si thin-film cell technology and the principle of plasmonic light-trapping in an easy-to-understand visual form."

"It is JoVE's first step outside of the biological sciences and is anticipated to be the first of many," said Meghan Berryman, Associate Editor for JoVE: Bioengineering, "JoVE has been previously commended for increasing productivity in biological sciences and we are confident that this new section will help open a window into the physical sciences. JoVE is both pleased and excited to move into this foundational field. It is a natural next step in the process of building a novel video-based scientific publication."

Provided by The Journal of Visualized Experiments