Capturing and manipulating light at nanoscale is a key factor to build high efficiency solar cells. Researchers in the 3-D Photovoltaics group have recently presented a promising new design. Their simulations show that vertically stacked nanowires on top of ultrathin silicon films reduces the total amount of material needed by 90 percent while increasing the efficiency of the solar cell. These promising simulation results are an important step toward next-generation solar cells. The results have been published on May 23rd in Optics Express.