About us

Peafowl Plasmonics

Peafowl

Peafowl his the gender neutral version of Peacock. While the peacock is know to be the most colourful and beautiful bird in the world, the female peahen is an inconspicuous looking, brown bird.

Peacocks are known for their beautiful plumage. Little do most people know that the pigment (the colour) of the male is also brown. It is the nanostructures on the feathers that reflects the colour that we see.

Peafowl Plasmonics use nanoparticles to create energy in a similar way. We harvest the light as energy, but we can make radiant colours too.

Our co-founder, Cristina Paun, is from Romania and Paun means Peacock in Romanian. So we like the physical effect, our product and the name for their shared commonality, and gender neutrality comes naturally.

Peafowl Plasmonics is a spin-out from Ångström Laboratory of Uppsala University, Sweden. The company was founded in 2018 to commercialize the world’s first direct plasmonic solar cell, with applications in self-powered dynamic windows and integrated power supply for smart sensors and electronic devices.

We have been recognised on several lists for climate impact and innovation, for example Nordic Cleantech Open and the prestigious Red Herring Global Top 100.

We have also been selected to participate in several accelerator programs, for example Clean Cities ClimAccelerator and the Global Innovation Challenge by UNOPS S3i.

Peafowl Plasmonics supports Terra Carta, by The former Prince of Wales, under the Sustainable Markets Initiative. It is our conviction that companies together will make a difference towards an inspiring, inclusive, equitable, prosperous and sustainable future. Terra Carta aims to provide an integrated roadmap that will harness the power of Nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector.

Sustainable digitalisation

With plasmonics we harvest ubiquitous light, to make electronic devices sustainable and self-powered. With transparent light harvesting, focusing on design and beauty, we enable societies to become greener, smarter and more beautiful.

Visionary Friends

Sometimes you meet this amazing person, who understands what you mean and shares your vision.
We truly believe that these people are important in actually shaping our future.
We are happy and proud that some of them think that what we do will have an impact and could make a difference towards that vision.

Naila Moloo

Student, recently named the youngest recipient of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women

“What excites me about something like a transparent solar cell is its applications for vehicles. Something like a solar powered car would be dependent on solar arrays, which consist of hundreds of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. The largest of arrays can produce over 2 kilowatts today, which could allow solar cars to attain the same speed as a typical car. Not only do the possibilities lie with cars, but they could extend to airplanes, trains, and buses. The energy input is the largest limiting factor as of right now, but I’m optimistic for a future where a solar powered transportation sector exists. Transparent solar cells will be key to unlocking this reality.”

Prof. Peter Nordlander
Rice University, USA

“Plasmons are remarkable light harvesters with cross-sections that can be order of magnitude larger than their physical cross-section. For sustainable light harvesting applications such as photodetection, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, or solar driven water remediation, plasmonic nanoparticles is the only realistic solution.”

Dr. Ambuj Varshney
UC Berkeley

“Plasmonic solar cells are an exciting new direction in harvesting light-based energy. These cells are well suited for Internet of Things applications. A particular area of focus for me is the design of battery-free IoT devices utilizing backscatter mechanism. Due to their power efficiency especially when harvesting energy from low-light conditions, customizability and ability to be tuned to specific wavelengths, these solar cells could greatly benefit such devices.”

Voices about our company

Very nice to see aesthetics combined with cutting-edge technology, high-end technology for the ecstatically inclined!

Tomas Edvinsson

Professor of Solid State Physics Department of Materials Science and Engineering Uppsala university

Peafowl Plasmonics is the start-up company that I use as a model to motivate my students that success comes from innovating at every step of your technology. From the chemical design of the nanomaterials to surface and interphase chemistry and device architecture, each step implemented by Peafowl is a research and a technological breakthrough.

Dr. Loredana Protesescu

Assistant Professor of Nanomaterials Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials