California Institute of Technology

University of California

University of Illinois

Colton Bukowsky

Harry A Atwater

Armand Paul Alivisatos

Ralph G Nuzzo

Thomas P Russell

Sisir Yalamanchili

Dennis Callahan

Lu Xu

Rebecca Saive

Ognjen Ilic

Junwen He

Sunita Darbe

David R Needell

Zach Nett

Noah Bronstein

Brent Koscher

Haley Bauser

Luminescent solar concentrators in accordance with various embodiments of the invention can be designed to minimize photon thermalization losses and incomplete light trapping using various components and techniques. Cadmium selenide core, cadmium sulfide shell (CdSe/CdS) quantum dot ('QD') technology can be implemented in such devices to allow for near-unity QDs and sufficiently large Stokes shifts. Many embodiments of the invention include a luminescent solar concentrator that incorporates CdSe/CdS quantum dot luminophores. In further embodiments, anisotropic luminophore emission can be implemented through metasurface/plasmonic antenna coupling. In several embodiments, red-shifted luminophores are implemented. Additionally, top and bottom spectrally-selective filters, such as but not limited to selectively-reflective metasurface mirrors and polymeric stack filters, can be implemented to enhance the photon collection efficiency. In some embodiments, luminescent solar concentrator component is optically connected in tandem with a planar Si subcell, forming a micro-optical tandem luminescent solar concentrator.

Luminescent solar concentrators and related methods of manufacturing

In conventional solar cells with metal contacts, a non-negligible fraction of the incoming solar power is immediately lost either through absorption or reflection upon interaction with the contacts. Effectively transparent contacts ('ETCs') for solar cells can be referred to as three-dimensional contacts designed to redirect incoming light onto a photoabsorbing surface of a solar cell. In many embodiments, the ETCs have triangular cross-sections. Such ETCs can be placed on a photoabsorbing surface such that at least one of their sides forms an angle with the photoabsorbing surface. In this configuration, the ETCs can redirect incident light onto the photoabsorbing surface, mitigating or eliminating reflection loss compared to conventional solar cells. When constructed in accordance with a number of embodiments of the invention, ETCs can be effectively transparent and highly conductive.

Fabrication processes for effectively transparent contacts

Photovoltaic structures are disclosed. The structures can comprise randomly or periodically structured layers, a dielectric layer to reduce back diffusion of charge carriers, and a metallic layer to reflect photons back towards the absorbing semiconductor layers. This design can increase efficiency of photovoltaic structures. The structures can be fabricated by nanoimprint.

Photon and carrier management design for nonplanar thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaics

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Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Colton Bukowsky