A path to practical Solar Pumped Lasers via Radiative Energy Transfer

Journal Article · Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 UTC 2015 · Scientific Reports

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep14758 · OSTI ID:1239277

Reusswig, Philip D. ^[1]; Nechayev, Sergey ^[2]; Scherer, Jennifer M. ^[3]; Hwang, Gyu Weon ^[3]; Bawendi, Moungi G. ^[3]; Baldo, Marc. A. ^[3]; Rotschild, Carmel ^[2]

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1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
2. Technion-Israel Inst. of Technology, Haifa (Israel)
3. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

The optical conversion of incoherent solar radiation into a bright, coherent laser beam enables the application of nonlinear optics to solar energy conversion and storage. Here, we present an architecture for solar pumped lasers that uses a luminescent solar concentrator to decouple the conventional trade-off between solar absorption efficiency and the mode volume of the optical gain material. We report a 750-μm-thick Nd ³⁺ -doped YAG planar waveguide sensitized by a luminescent CdSe/CdZnS (core/shell) colloidal nanocrystal, yielding a peak cascade energy transfer of 14%, a broad spectral response in the visible portion of the solar spectrum, and an equivalent quasi-CW solar lasing threshold of 23 W-cm^-2, or approximately 230 suns. The efficient coupling of incoherent, spectrally broad sunlight in small gain volumes should allow the generation of coherent laser light from intensities of less than 100 suns.

• Research Organization: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Excitonics (CE); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0001088
• OSTI ID: 1239277
• Journal Information: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Vol. 5; ISSN 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English