Luminescent solar concentrators based on polymer nanocomposite films made by open-air pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

We report on the polymer nanocomposite coatings doped with the nanoparticles of rare-earth (RE)-doped fluoride phosphor NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). Concurrent multi-beam multi-target pulsed laser deposition (CMBMT-PLD) of the phosphor and a polymer conducted in open air was investigated as a candidate process for such coatings. Polymer poly(methyl methacrylate) known as PMMA was considered to be deposited on a glass substrate from a solid target using fundamental harmonic (1064 nm) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser concurrently with the phosphor. The sun light was absorbed by the phosphor nanoparticles embedded in polymer film and converted into near-infrared (NIR) radiation via the mechanism of downconversion (quantum cutting). The NIR radiation propagated via the glass substrate as a light guide and was converted into electric power with photovoltaic cells attached to the edges of the glass plate. The polymer did not exhibit degradation during the open-air deposition process. The proposed method is capable to coat economically commercial window-size substrates. The polymer nanocomposite LSCs have broad absorption band covering a significant portion of the solar radiation spectrum, high spectral conversion efficiency, and low reabsorption due to minimal overlap between the absorption and emission spectra (large Stokes shift).