Open AccessTotal internal reflection-based planar waveguide solar concentrator with symmetric air prisms as couplers
Author(s) -
Peng Xie,
Huichuan Lin,
Yong Liu,
Baojun Li
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.22.0a1389
Subject(s) - optics , zemax , concentrator , waveguide , planar , total internal reflection , lens (geology) , ray tracing (physics) , materials science , nonimaging optics , reflection (computer programming) , physics , software , computer graphics (images) , computer science , programming language
We present a waveguide coupling approach for planar waveguide solar concentrator. In this approach, total internal reflection (TIR)-based symmetric air prisms are used as couplers to increase the coupler reflectivity and to maximize the optical efficiency. The proposed concentrator consists of a line focusing cylindrical lens array over a planar waveguide. The TIR-based couplers are located at the focal line of each lens to couple the focused sunlight into the waveguide. The optical system was modeled and simulated with a commercial ray tracing software (Zemax). Results show that the system used with optimized TIR-based couplers can achieve 70% optical efficiency at 50 × geometrical concentration ratio, resulting in a flux concentration ratio of 35 without additional secondary concentrator. An acceptance angle of ± 7.5° is achieved in the x-z plane due to the use of cylindrical lens array as the primary concentrator.