Silicon nitride grating based planar spectral splitting concentrator for NIR light harvesting

Abstract

We design a multi-layered solar spectral splitting planar concentrator for near infrared (NIR) light energy harvesting application. Each layer includes a silicon nitride based subwavelength diffraction grating on top of a glass substrate that is optimized to diffract the incoming solar radiation in a specific band from a broad spectral band (700-1400 nm in the NIR region) into guided modes propagating inside the glass substrate. The steep diffraction angle due to subwavelength grating results in concentrated light at the edge of each layer where it is then converted to electricity using a photovoltaic cell. The spectral splitting planar concentrator shows an overall NIR guiding efficiency of ∼18%, and power conversion efficiency of ∼11%. The design can be potentially used for building integrated photovoltaics application.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jul 07, 2020
Source ID
10.1364/oe.390666

Entities

People

  • Ameen Elikkottil
  • Bala Pesala
  • Mohammad H Tahersima
  • Surendra Gupta
  • Volker Sorger

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Department of Science and Technology

Tags

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.