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This invention deals with the broad general concept for focussing light. A mini-optics tracking and focussing system is presented for solar power conversion that ranges from an individual's portable system to solar conversion of electrical…
Due to an ever growing shortage of conventional energy sources, there is an increasingly intense interest in harnessing solar energy. The instant invention can contribute to the goal of achieving environmentally clean solar energy to be…
The ability to absorb light is indispensable for high efficient solar power generation. This places conflicting requirements on the structure of a solar cell: On one hand, it needs to have thick active layers to absorb more of the available…
Solar energy is clean and renewable but has a low flux density. The lack of a continuous and reliable power supply reduces their average daily output. Since the infrared part is not utilized to produce electricity, conventional photovoltaic…
Lightweight parabolic mirrors for solar concentrators have been fabricated using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and a nanometer scale optical surface smoothing technique. The smoothing technique improved the surface roughness of the…
This study investigates optical and electrical properties of thin melanin films self-organized grown from water solutions of eumelanin extracted from edible plants. The melanin films exhibit the characteristics of a transparent low…
Thin-film solar cells that are considered as the second generation of solar cells are known for their low cost and acceptable efficiency. In this technology, semiconductor layers with a thickness of micrometer are deposited on thick enough…
Parabolic and spherical mirrors are constructed of aluminized PET polyester film on urethane foam. During construction, the chosen shape of the mirror is created by manipulating the elastic/plastic behavior of the film with air pressure.…
Glass provides mechanical, chemical, and UV protection to solar panels, enabling these devices to withstand weathering for several decades. The increasing demand for solar electricity and the need to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions…
Thin film solar cells have been attractive for decades in advanced green technology platforms due to its possibilities to be integrated with buildings and on-chip applications. However, the bottleneck issues involved to consider the current…
Nano-scaled metallic or dielectric structures may provide various ways to trap light into thin-film solar cells for improving the conversion efficiency. In most schemes, the textured active layers are involved into light trapping structures…
A nanocomposite film containing highly polarizable inclusions in a fluid background is explored when an external electric field is applied perpendicular to the planar film. For small electric fields, the induced dipole moments of the…
We suggest a novel concept of efficient light-trapping structures for thin-film solar cells based on arrays of planar nanoantennas operating far from plasmonic resonances. The operation principle of our structures relies on the excitation…
In order to achieve a large deployment of renewable energies, the electricity production costs have to be as low as possible. Many different technologies have been proposed to achieve the best efficiency to cost ratio. One of those is…
We propose a back-reflecting scheme in order to enhance the maximum achievable current in one micron thick crystalline silicon solar cells. We perform 3-dimensional numerical investigations of the scattering properties of metallic…
Light trapping in solar cells allows for increased current and voltage, as well as reduced materials cost. It is known that in geometrical optics, a maximum 4n^2 absorption enhancement factor can be achieved by randomly texturing the…
Photonic metamaterials are man-made structures composed of tailored micro- or nanostructured metallo-dielectric sub-wavelength building blocks that are densely packed into an effective material. This deceptively simple, yet powerful, truly…
Nano-scaled dielectric and metallic structures are popular light tapping structures in thin-film solar cells. However, a large parasitic absorption in those structures is unavoidable. Most schemes based on such structures also involve the…
We propose a new concept for the design of high-efficiency photocells based on ultra-thin (submicron) semiconductor films of controlled thickness. Using a microscopic model of a thin dielectric layer interacting with incident…
Near-eye display plays an important role in emerging spatial computing systems, providing a distinctive visual effect of virtual-real fusion. However, its application for all-day wear is greatly limited by the bulky structure, energy…