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Fluorescent concentrators concentrate both diffuse and direct radiation without requiring tracking of the sun. Luminescent materials embedded in a transparent matrix absorb sunlight and emit radiation with a different wavelength. Total internal reflection traps the emitted light and guides it to solar cells attached to the concentrator's edges.
Fluorescent concentrators concentrate both diffuse and direct radiation without requiring tracking of the sun. Luminescent materials embedded in a transparent matrix absorb sunlight and emit radiation with a different wavelength. Total internal reflection traps the emitted light and guides it to solar cells attached to the concentrator's edges.
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Fluorescent concentrators concentrate both diffuse and direct radiation without requiring tracking of the sun. Luminescent materials embedded in a transparent matrix absorb sunlight and emit radiation with a different wavelength. Total internal reflection traps the emitted light and guides it to solar cells attached to the concentrator's edges.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Formati disponibili
Scarica in formato DOCX, PDF, TXT o leggi online su Scribd
() ( ) = 1 - n - 2 (2) t r ap e mi t of the emitted photon flux that is trapped in the collector . For PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) with approx. n = 1.5, 29 this results in a trapped fraction of around 74%, which means that a fraction of around 26% is lost after every emission process. The 26% account for the losses through both surfaces. An attached mirror does not change this number, as with a mirror the light leaves the collector through the front surface after being reflected. The loss of around 26% does not only occur once, but after every re-absorption and subsequent re-emission. On the other hand , the Stokes shift between absorption and emission opens the opportunity to reduce these losses significantly: a selective reflector, which transmits the light in the absorp tion range of the luminescent material and reflects the emitted light, would trap nearly all the emitted light inside the collector . The concept is illustrated in Figure 30 1 on the right. There are several ways to realize such selective reflectors. For instance, in hot mirrors were proposed to 17 serve as selective reflectors and in photonic structures. In the fist part of the paper, we will show experimental results 18 on how different photonic structures affect the efficiency of fluorescent concentrator systems. Even with photonic structures, however, light emitted into the former escape cone is more frequently subject to loss events. This light is emitted into steep angles in respect to the front surface. Therefore it has a very long effective path inside the concentrator until it reaches a solar cell. In consequence, it suffers quite strongly from path length dependent losses, such as re-absorption by the dye, absorption in the matrix, scattering etc. In the second part of the paper, we discuss integration of the luminescent material into photonic structures that suppress emission into the unfavorable directions to reduce these losses. We present possible realizations both for th e concentrator design as well as for the solar cells that are to be used in such systems. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-2 2. REDUCING ESCAPE CONE LOSSES WITH PHOTONIC STRUCTURES 2.1 Multilayer system To reduce the escape cone losses, a selective reflector is necessary that shows a high transmission in the absorption range of the luminescent material and high reflection in the emission range. A possible realization of such a selective reflector is a so-called Rugate filter. It features a continuously varying refractive index profile that results in a single reflection peak. However, some unwanted side lobes remain. Optimized Rugate filters show only one single reflection peak for a certain wavelength and almost no other reflectio ns. In this work, such optimized Rugate filters are used, which were an d they were optimized for produced at the company mso-jena by Ion-Assisted-Deposition (IAD. Their size is 5x5cm th e used dye material. The filters had an antireflection coating adapted to the absorptio n range of the used dye. The used material is denoted BA241 and was develop during the first research period in the 1980s The reflection of the filter, the absorption and the photoluminescence of the BA241fluorescent concentrator are shown in Figure 2. The filter transmits the light in the absorption range of the dye and it reflects the emitted light and therefore has exactly the desired properties. Figure 2: Reflection spectrum of the used photonic structure and the absorption and photoluminescence of the fluorescent concentrator the filter was designed for. The reflection of the structure very nicely fits the emission peak of the dye in the concentrator. To investigate how the filter increases the light guiding efficiency of the concentrators we attached a 21 x 3 mm GaInP 2 solar cell on one rim of a 3 mm thick fluorescent concentrator with a size of 2 x 6 cm (the cell was attached to the 2 cm rim). A white BaSO bottom reflector was placed under the system and the EQE of the system was measured, with and 4 with out the filter on top. During the EQE measurement, the system was illuminated with a 3 mm wide spot in 1 cm distance to the solar cell. Figure 3 sh ows the comparison of the two measurements and additionally the reflection of the filter. Obviously the filter reduces the efficiency in the region where it is reflective, which is the case for the wan ted reflection above 550 nm and also for the unwanted reflection below 380 nm. On the other hand, the filter increases efficiency significantly over a broad spectral range, because it traps the emitted light. We also realized a system with a 5 mm thick, 5 x 10 cm fluorescent concentrator to which one GaInP solar cell was 2 coupled with silico ne. The solar cell had an active area of 5 x 49 mm . Hence the relation between illuminated 2 fluorescent concentrator area and solar cell area constitutes a geometric concentration ratio of 20x. The so lar cell had an efficiency of 16.7% under AM1.5g illumination. White PTFE served as bottom reflector and also as reflector at the edges that were not covered by solar cells. Without the filter this system had an efficiency of 2.6±0.1% (uncertainty is for relative comparison) in reference to the 50 cm area of the system. The filter increased the efficiency to 3.1±0.1%, 2 which constitutes an efficiency increase of around 20% relative. With the achieved efficiency of 3.1% and the concentration ratio of 20, the realized fluorescent concentrator produces about 3.7 times more energy than the GaInP solar cell had produced on its own. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-3 Figure 3: External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) measurement of a system with a GaInP solar cell attached to a fluorescent collector of 3 mm thickness made from BA241 under which a BaSO bottom reflector was placed with and without a 4 photonic structure on top of the collector. Additionally the reflection of the photonic structure is shown. The efficiency is increased significantly over a broad spectral range, because more emitted light is trapped and guided to the sides. Figure 4 shows the spatially resolved light collection efficiency as it was measured with a Light Beam Induced Current (LBIC) setup on this system with a photonic structure on top. One can see that the collection efficiency is highest close to the solar cell. The efficiency drops with increasing distance to the solar cell and closer to the solar cell free edges. Interestingly, the collection efficiency increases as well close to the edge opposite the solar cell. This effect was observed in different systems of varying sizes. Therefore it cannot be considered a simple measurement artifact. Very likely, light outside the absorption range of the dye is somehow redirected to the solar cell by the bottom and the edge reflector, or by the actual edge of the collector. However, a precise explanation is yet to be developed. Figure 4: Light Beam Induced Current (LBIC) scan of the 10 x 5 cm sample described above. A photonic structure was 2 placed on top of the fluorescent concentrator during the measurement. A white reflector made from PTFE was placed at the bottom and the edges without solar cells. The edge with the attached solar cell is located at the right in this picture. Not the full collector area was scanned to avoid contact of the scanning head with the wiring of the system. One can see that the collection efficiency is highest close to the solar cell. The efficiency drops with increasing distance to the solar cell and closer to the edges. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-4 Figure 5: Averaged linescans in x-direction from an LBIC scan with and without photonic structure. Close to the solar cell the efficiency is lower with the photonic structure, because it reduces the effectiveness of the bottom reflector for small distances. Over most of the fluorescent concentrator, however, collection efficiency is significantly higher with a photonic structure, resulting in a relative efficiency increase of 20%. Figure 5 compares the averaged linescans in the x-direction of the LBIC scan shown in Figure 4 and of a scan without photonic structure. The average was taken from 1.25 to 2.5 cm in the y-direction. Close to the solar cell the efficiency is lo wer with the photonic structure. The reason is that light, which enters the collector close to the solar cell, can be reflected directly to the solar cell by the bottom reflector. This absorption-less light collection works as well for the light outside the absorption range of the dye, which is still in the spectral region that can be used by the solar cell. This light outside the absorption range, however, is blocked by the photonic structure. Nevertheless, over most of the fluorescent concentrator, collection efficiency is significantly higher with a photonic structure, resulting in the relative efficiency increase of 20%. This is a clear demonstration of how photonic structures can help to increase the collection efficiencies of larger fluorescent concentrator systems. 2.2 Opaline systems The efficiency increase of 20% is already a great success since it shows that photonic structures reduce the escape cone lo sses sign ificantly. However, the used filter is a multilayer system and therefore costly to produce. Three-dimensional photonic structures are a potential alternative to the presented multilayer systems. A special three-dimensional photonic structure is the opal. The opal has the advantage that it can be produced by a dip -coating process utilizing self- organization of mono-disperse PMMA beads (Figure 6) . This is a potentially low-cost process that could be applied on 32 large area concentrators. Producing opaline films of high quality directly on the PMMA o f the fluorescent collector is difficult, since the PMMA surface is hydrophobic. However, the surface can be made hydrophilic by an oxygen plasma treatment. An alternative approach is producing the opaline film on a sacrifice layer and transferring the film to the fluorescent concentrator. To investigate the effect of the opal on the collection efficiency of the fluorescent concentrator, an opaline film with properties adapted to the BA241 material was produced on a glass substrate. The diameter of the PMMA beads was 256 nm and around 50 layers of beads were deposited on the glass. The reflection of the opal on the glass is shown in Figure 7 in comparison to the absorption and fluorescence of the dye. The sample was placed on top of a 2 cm x 2 cm sample of BA241 with one GaInP solar cell attached to one edge. Under the bottom and around the free edges white PTFE reflectors were placed. The efficiency was determined with and with out the opal on top. Without the photonic structure the efficiency was 3.3%, but dropped with the opal on top to 3.0%. The reasons for this drop are that for one there is more than 10% unwanted reflection in the absorption range of th e dye, wh ich causes sev ere losses. This unwanted reflection is mostly caused by stacking faults that cause scattering. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-5 Second, the reflection peak in the emission region of the dye is not perfectly aligned to the emission spectrum. Moreover, the reflection only peaks at around 70%. Therefo re not all the light emitted into the escape cone is reflected back into the concentrator The reflection can be increased with depositing opaline films with more layers of PMMA beads and by reducing the stacking faults. A reduction of stacking fault would result in a reduction of the unwanted reflection as well. However, increasing the number of layers makes a stacking fault-free assembly of the beads less likely. In consequence, progress in th e preparation of the film is necessary, to make it technologically viable to deposit opaline photonic structures on large area fluorescent concentrators. Figure 6: SEM image of an opaline film produced by the self-organization of mono-disperse PMMA beads. This film was produced on a sacrifice layer so it could be transferred to a fluorescent concentrator later on. Figure 7: The reflection of an opaline film made of 256 nm PMMA beads in comparison to the absorption and emission of the fluorescent concentrator. Up to now, the reflection peak of the photonic structure at the emission wavelengths of the dye is not high enough to over-compensate the losses due to the reflection of the photonic structure in the absorption range of the dye 2.3 Next steps To successfully reduce escape cone losses of fluorescent concentrators with photonic structures in a commercial application, the most important task is to find a low-cost process to produce high-quality structures. Furthermore, the photonic structures shou ld be deposited d irectly on to the fluorescent concentrators. This reduces the number of boundaries and therefore unwanted reflections. With an adequate design, the photonic structures can act as an antireflection coating in the absorp tion range of the dye and as reflector for the emitted radiation at the same time. In this configuration, reflection and escape cone losses are reduced simultaneously. But also even more radical photonic concepts are possible, as we will discuss in the following section. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-6 3. RESTRICTING THE ANGULAR EMISSION We have seen before that photonic structures reduce the escape cone losses. However, even with a photonic structure, light emitted into the escape cone is more frequently subject to loss events. Because it is emitted into a steep angle in respect to the front surface, it has a very long effective path until it reaches a solar cell, and therefore suffers more from path length dependent losses. Hence, it would be very beneficial to suppress emission into these unfavorable directions completely. This shou ld as well be po ssible with the help of photo nic structures. Already the very first works on and Yablonovitch dealt with influencing emission with photonic structures. Many papers photonic crystals of Bykov 33 34 discussed the possibilities subsequently . For influencing the emission of the dye su ccessfully, it is necessary that the 35 -41 photonic structures are very close to the emission process or that the luminescent material is incorporated into the photonic structures. For the fluorescent concentrator systems this means that one has to go from the macroscopic design of the presented systems to a system design we denote “Nano-Fluko”. Figure 8: Conceptual sketch of a “Nano-Fluko”. A very thin layer of luminescent material with thickness t in the range of wavelength of the emitted light is placed between two photonic structures, e.g. Bragg stacks. The photonic structures transmit light in the absorption range of the luminescent material with an energy E . They are reflective in the emission 1 region (E ) of the luminescent material. Because the layer with the luminescent material is so thin, the photonic 2 structures suppress the emission into unfavorable directions. One possible realization of such a “Nano-Fluko” would be a very thin layer of luminescent material between two photonic structures, e.g. Rugate filters or Bragg stack s (Figure 8). In such a configuration, the emission of the light would b e restricted to a plane parallel to the photonic structure. Galli et al. showed that the emission of Er can be 3+ strongly enhanced, if it is incorporated in a photonic crystal waveguide and that efficient waveguiding occurs . 4 2, 43 Therefore there is first experimental evidence that such a system can work, and it is an interesting approach to apply this concept to fluorescent concentrators. Another realization could be a photonic crystal fiber doped with a luminescent material (Figure 9). However, to design th e photonic structure around the fiber with the right spectral selectivity will be a deman ding task. On the other hand, such a realization would enable very interesting application opportunities. For instance, the fibers could be woven into a flexible fabric with the properties of a fluorescent concentrator. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-7 Figure 9: Alternative realization of a “Nano-Fluko”. The luminescent material is incorporated into a photonic crystal fiber. If the photonic shell is designed with the right spectral selectivity, the fiber could accept light in the absorption range (E ) 1 of the luminescent material from all directions. Emission with energies (E ) would be restricted to the direction of the 2 fiber. Probably a more realistic option is to incorporate the luminescent material d irectly into th e p ho tonic structure. This could be done for example with an opaline film made from PMMA beads that incorporate much smaller luminescent nanocrystals (Figure 10). If the optical band-gap in the emission range of the dye is incomplete, emission into certain directions is allowed and effective light guiding occurs. Figure 10: Sketch of “Nano-Fluko” realized by incorporation of the luminescent material directly into the photonic structure. This could be done for example with an opaline film made from PMMA beads that incorporate much smaller luminescent nanocrystals. If the optical band-gap in the emission range of the dye is incomplete, emission into certain directions is allowed and effective light guiding occurs. For all the suggested options for realization, several layers with the same dye will b e needed to achieve sufficient absorption. As the guided light is constraint to very thin layers high intensities will occur in these layers. Because of thermodynamical reasons, there is a limit for which concentration can be achieved with a fluorescent concentrator depending on the Stokes Shift of the used dye . One question is therefore, which system sizes can be achieved using 44 th is approach until th e thermodynamic limit reduces efficiency. Furthermore, attaching solar cells to the thin layers is a challenge. Especially, because preferably different types of solar cells are attached to layers with different dyes. In Figure 11 two different options are shown. One option is to produce different types of solar cells on one chip, e.g. with a MOVPE-process from III-V semiconductors. Because the required areas will be very small, this could be v iable from a commercial point of view as well. Preferably, contact fingers should be aligned between the light guiding layers such that no reflections losses occur. An alternative option would be to vertically cut through conventional tandem solar cells in a process comparable to that used for sliver cells . 45 Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-8 Figure 11: Two options of how a “Nano-Fluko” system complete with solar cells could be realized. To achieve good absorption several layers with luminescent materials must be stacked onto each other. The combination of different materials ensures good utilization of the solar spectrum. On the right, the attachment of solar cells made from different materials on one common substrate is shown. The contact fingers should be aligned with the photonic structures so no shading losses occur. On the left, the option is shown to cut a standard tandem solar cell vertically, similar to the sliver cell process and to attach such vertical cuts to the edges of a “Nano-Fluko”. 4. SUMMARY We have investigated, how the escape cone losses of fluorescent concentrators can be reduced with the help of photonic structures. We showed that a 20% increase in collection efficiency could be achieved with a commercially available multi-layer system. Opaline films might be a solution to produce photonic structures on large areas at low costs. For a positive effect on the light collection efficiency, however, further progress in the production of the opaline films is necessary. 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Politi et al., “Direct evidence of light confinement and emission enhancement in active silicon-on-insulator slot waveg uides,” Applied Physics Letters, 89(241114), 241114/1-3 (2006). [43] M. Galli, A. Politi, M. Belotti et al., “Strong enhancement of Er3+ emission at room temperature in silicon-on- insulator photonic crystal waveguides,” Applied Physics Letters, 88(251114), 251114/1-3 (2006). [44] E. Yablonovitch, “Thermodynamics of the fluorescent planar concentrator,” Journal of the Optical Society of America, 70(11), 1362-3 (1980). [45] K. J. Weber, A. W. Blakers, P. N. K. Deenapanray et al., "Sliver® solar cells," in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA, IEEE, 991-4. Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7725 77250S-11 For example, at latitudes of 65 degrees the change in solar energy in summer & winter can vary by more than 25% as a result of the Earth's orbital variation. Because changes in winter and summer tend to offset, the change in the annual average insolation at any given location is near zero, but the redistribution of energy between summer and winter does strongly affect the intensity of seasonal cycles. Such changes associated with the redistribution of solar energy are considered a likely cause for the coming and going of recent ice ages.