Numerical optimization of a photocell (Q1802835)

The author considers the problem of the design of a photocell which contains a layer which is a mixture of glass and a dielectric oxide. The mixture is not homogeneous and the author provides a method for optimizing the function defining the proportions of oxide and glass so that the absorbed energy is maximized. He produces a variational formulation and shows how a sequence converging to the solution can be produced. He illustrates this by the results of some numerical experiments.