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  4. Efficiency of a micro-bubble reflector based, self-adaptive waveguide solar concentrator
 
conference paper

Efficiency of a micro-bubble reflector based, self-adaptive waveguide solar concentrator

Zagolla, V.
•
Tremblay, E.
•
Moser, C.
Freundlich, A
•
Guillemoles, Jf
2013
Physics, Simulation, And Photonic Engineering Of Photovoltaic Devices Ii
Conference on Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices II

State of the art solar concentrators use free-space, non-imaging optics to concentrate sunlight. Mechanical actuators keep the focal spot on a small solar cell by tracking the sun's position. Planar concentrators emerged recently that employ a waveguide slab to achieve high concentration by coupling the incident sunlight into the waveguide. We report on the development of an opto-fluidic waveguide coupling mechanism for planar solar concentration. The self-adaptive mechanism is light-responsive to efficiently maintain waveguide coupling and concentration independent of incoming light's direction. By using an array of axicons and lenses, an array of vapor bubbles are generated inside a planar, liquid waveguide, one for each axicon-lens pair. The mechanism uses the infrared part of the solar spectrum on an infrared absorbing medium to provide the energy needed for bubble generation. Visible light focused onto the bubble is then reflected by total internal reflection (TIR) at the liquid-gas interface and coupled into the waveguide. Vapor bubbles inside the liquid are trapped by a thermal effect and are shown to self-track the location of the infrared focus. We show experimental results on the coupling efficiency of a single bubble and discuss the effect of angular coupling. Furthermore the effect of an array of bubbles inside the waveguide (as produced by a lensarray) onto the coupling efficiency and concentration factor is analyzed.

  • Details
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Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2003687
Web of Science ID

WOS:000322825200027

Author(s)
Zagolla, V.
Tremblay, E.
Moser, C.
Editors
Freundlich, A
•
Guillemoles, Jf
Date Issued

2013

Publisher

Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Physics, Simulation, And Photonic Engineering Of Photovoltaic Devices Ii
ISBN of the book

978-0-8194-9389-7

Total of pages

8

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

8620

Subjects

solar concentration

•

self-adaptive

•

opto-fluidics

•

vapor bubbles

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LAPD  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices II

San Francisco, CA

FEB 03-07, 2013

Available on Infoscience
October 1, 2013
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/95897
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