  Solar cells have generated a lot of interest as a potential source of clean
renewable energy for the future. However a big bottleneck in wide scale
deployment of these energy sources remain the low efficiency of these
conversion devices. Recently the use of nanostructures and the strategy of
quantum confinement have been as a general approach towards better charge
carrier generation and capture. In this article we have presented calculations
on the optical characteristics of nanowires made out of Silicon. Our
calculations show these nanowires form excellent optoelectronic materials and
may yield efficient photovoltaic devices.
