High-Efficiency Organic Solar Concentrators for Photovoltaics
Michael J. Currie,*
Jonathan K. Mapel,*
Timothy D. Heidel,
Shalom Goffri,
Marc A. Baldo
The cost of photovoltaic power can be reduced with organic solar
concentrators. These are planar waveguides with a thin-film
organic coating on the face and inorganic solar cells attached
to the edges. Light is absorbed by the coating and reemitted
into waveguide modes for collection by the solar cells. We report
single- and tandem-waveguide organic solar concentrators with
quantum efficiencies exceeding 50% and projected power conversion
efficiencies as high as 6.8%. The exploitation of near-field
energy transfer, solid-state solvation, and phosphorescence
enables 10-fold increases in the power obtained from photovoltaic
cells, without the need for solar tracking.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: baldo{at}mit.edu
