Case 12478

Improving the Collection Efficiency of Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Keywords:

Luminescent Solar Concentrator (LSC)

Applications:

Photovoltaic devices, photovoltaic windows

Problem:

    Limited performance of LSCs due to radiated light transport and confinement efficiency losses

Technology:

This invention proposes to increase radiated light transport efficiency by reducing the spectral overlap of absorption and emission through use of optically coupled chromophores, e.g. phycobilisome antenna complexes, chromophores that emit light from triplet states and undergo intersystem crossing from singlet to triplet state, and chromophores embedded into a polar matrix. Techniques claimed include increase in waveguide confinement efficiency by cladding the waveguide with dielectric mirrors and a novel use of LSCs as windows using a glass waveguide and adjusting the chromophore concentration such that light transmission through the stack is nonzero.

Advantages:
  • Improved light transport efficiency
  • Improved waveguide confinement efficiency

Inventors:
  • Professor Marc A. Baldo(Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT)
  • Jonathan K. Mapel (Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT)
  • Michael James Currie (Lincoln Laboratory)
  • Shalom Goffri (Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT)
  • Timothy D. Heidel (MIT Energy Initative)

Intellectual Property:

US Patent application 12/353459 filed on January 14, 2009

US Patent application US09/030918 filed on January 14, 2009

Publications:

N/A

Last revised: January 19, 2012

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