Solar Energy:

quantum dot solar concentrator

Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) are non-imaging concentrators which do not require solar tracking and concentrate both direct and diffuse light. Currently developed LSCs consist of a flat polymer plate doped with a luminescent dye (or other luminescent species). As incident light passes through the plate, photons are absorbed by the dye and subsequently re-emitted isotropically. The refractive index of the plate is larger than that of the surrounding air, resulting in much of the re-emitted light being trapped and transmitted to one edge, where a photovoltaic (PV) cell is attached. A Quantum Dot Solar Concentrator (QDSC) is an LSC, with the luminescent dye replaced with Quantum Dots (QDs).

A ray-trace model has been implemented in MATLAB which allows the optimum size of the concentrator to be determined, for any given set of system parameters. Parameters which can be varied in the model include the QD absorption and emission spectra and the matrix material attenuation spectra, all of which can be obtained from lab measurements. The model predictions show very good agreement with measured output from fabricated devices and excellent agreement with other modelling techniques used for LSCs.

There is currently a PhD scholarship available in this area - click here for more details

Personnel:

DIT - School of Physics

Mike Dunne

Manus Kennedy

Dr Sarah McCormack

Dr John Doran

Prof Brian Norton

Collaboration with Imperial College London, UK, The Energy Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Fraunhofer Institute, Germany and University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.