- an individual project by Clare Tan, 2013-14912
Two silicon wafers met, as if
forced to be together by some unconcerned engineer. He was a pessimistic sort
of guy, (having been scarred by phosphorus in the past). Too many electrons weighed
down on him, with nowhere to go and no one to accept them. They called him the
N-type doped silicon, N for short.
She on the other hand, was carefree
and blithe. She had blessings and boron atoms, dreams of the future and gaps
still waiting for someone to fill them. She was P-type doped silicon, but her
enemies called her P.
They were two semiconductors,
forced by the impurities of life to be something more than themselves. Do
opposites attract? They could only say yes. There is no freedom where the laws
of physics are concerned.
And they tried, of course. At
first, it seemed like everything was perfect. She was light enough to take away
all his problems, free enough to carry all his hang-around electrons. She had
holes in her heart that only he could fill. They were meant for each other like
pieces of a puzzle – it should have been alright.
It should have been alright.
But the problems came. The more
problems he gave her, the less energy she had to take in more. And there were always more.
They were changing. She was
becoming negative. And he had been
forced to be positive in return, trying to help her but never really being able
to in the end.
Things cascaded downwards until
nothing could turn them back, and everything was forever happening in the wrong
direction. There was an electric barrier in the air, brought about by the ever
sharpening differences in their personalities.
And when sometimes, a ray of light
would hit – some crisis would occur to shake up what was becoming a slow road
to middle-aged couple unhappiness – he would try to take the problem all on
himself. He would do that, and try to
make sure all the good things – the extra money, etc. – went to her. Because
really, she was too negative to take any more, and in his heart, he knew that
had been his fault.
But life wasn’t meant to work that
way – all pain and no joy. Secretly she wanted to help him too, to share things
with him again, if only she could.
Thankfully, that’s when therapy
came in.
Therapy is a bit like having a big
metal conductor attached to both sides of the couple – you find someone else to
help you get around that electric barrier in between. And through that third
person, they would find small ways to help each other out – to share both the
good things and the bad. A small current began to flow – granted it was a less
than 50% efficient current, it was still there.
Together, they had become something
more than themselves, something they had always been meant to be.
Together, they had become a solar
cell.
References:
(Note: this is a work of fiction, so I did not include
citations. However, I would like to thank the following sources for helping me
understand solar cells better)
Aldous, Scott & Toothman,
Jessika, 2000. How Solar Cells Work.
How Stuff Works.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/solar-cell.htm. March 1, 2014
Knier, Gil, 2002. How Do Photovoltaics Work? NASA
Science News. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/solarcells/.
March 1, 2014
“The Power of the Sun - The Science of the
Silicon Solar Cell.” YouTube. Flash video file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0hckM8TKY0 March 9, 2014
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