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Nonimaging optics in luminescent solar concentration

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Abstract

Light trapped within luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) is naturally limited in angular extent by the total internal reflection critical angle, θcrit, and hence the principles of nonimaging optics can be leveraged to increase LSC concentration ratio by appropriately reshaping the edges. Here, we use rigorous ray-tracing simulations to explore the potential of this concept for realistic LSCs with compound parabolic concentrator (CPC)-tapered edges and show that, when applied to a single edge, the concentration ratio is increased by 23% while maintaining >90% of the original LSC optical efficiency. Importantly, we find that CPC-tapering all of the edges enables a significantly greater intensity enhancement up to 35% at >90% of the original optical efficiency, effectively enabling two-dimensional concentration through a cooperative, ray-recycling effect in which rays rejected by one CPC are accepted by another. These results open up a significant opportunity to improve LSC performance at virtually no added manufacturing cost by incorporating nonimaging optics into their design.

©2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (4)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Physical layout of a typical ray-tracing simulation for a conventional luminescent concentrator. Incident light is indicated by blue rays and luminescence by green rays. (b) Radiant intensity distribution of light reaching the edge of a conventional LSC as indicated by the side-view schematic above. Sagittal (S) and transverse (T) angles are defined according the inset of (a) for the cell highlighted in red. (c) Tapering the edge into a compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) geometry as shown in the wireframe side-view above transforms the radiant intensity distribution in (b) to fill the full 2π steradian half-space.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Intensity increase realized for a 2 mm thick, quasi-1 dimensional CPC LSC relative to its conventional LSC counterpart calculated as a function of the acceptance angle and CPC length. As noted by the dashed green line, there is a limiting “natural” CPC length dependent upon on acceptance angle that is enforced to prevent the CPC edges from closing back in on one another at the input aperture; shorter lengths reflect a truncated CPC. The CPC input aperture is locked to the LSC edge thickness and thus the output aperture varies with CPC length. (b) Relative intensity (left-hand axis) and optical efficiency (right-hand axis) obtained for a “natural” length CPC LSC [e.g. following the green dashed line in (a)] as a function of acceptance angle. The inset illustrates the quasi-1 dimensional approximation used in these calculations, where the LSC is long and narrow with absorbing side faces to eliminate rays propagating significantly outside the sagittal plane.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Output intensity and optical efficiency of a 100 x 100 x 2 mm LSC with natural length (dependent on θacc) CPC-tapered edges relative to its conventional LSC counterpart. Data is included for several different self-absorption ratios, SA = ∞, SA = 243, SA = 118, and SA = 56, in the order indicated by the black arrow. (b) Similar data obtained for a 100 x 100 x 5 mm LSC with CPC edges truncated to a length of 1.5 mm, showing a significant increase in both intensity and efficiency at small acceptance angle due to improved ray-recycling that results from truncation.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 (a) Schematic showing how light rejected at the right-hand edge of a CPC LSC (green rays) is recollected at the top edge. Rays are incident from a vertically oriented (i.e. normal to the LSC faces) line source 5 mm from the midpoint of the right edge within the nominal acceptance angle of its CPC. (b) Fraction of rays collected at the right and top cells as illustrated in (a) for increasing emission azimuth in a 2 mm thick LSC with natural length CPC edges. The ϕ > 85° yellow shaded region indicates the point at which rays are incident directly on the top edge. (c) Similar data obtained for the case of a 5 mm thick LSC with truncated CPC edges.
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