High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A photovoltaic cell is a type of photoelectric cell that uses the photovoltaic effect to generate electrical energy using the potential difference that arises between materials when the surface of the cell is exposed to electromagnetic radiation. A photovoltaic cell is commonly used for detecting radiation (for example, infrared detectors), measurement of light intensity (such as in measuring optical density), chemical processes (for example, spectrophotometry), and for conversion of light energy to electricity in conversion photovoltaic cells (when only the solar light is converted they are called solar cells). The photovoltaic cell was developed in 1954 at Bell Laboratories.