Colorless and unidirectional diffractive-type solar concentrators compatible with existing windows

Dewei Zhang; Zhenghao Guo; Chun-Ting Xu; Jianqing Li; Yan-Qing Lu; Wei Hu

doi:10.1186/s43074-025-00178-3

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Dewei Zhang, Zhenghao Guo, Chun-Ting Xu, Jianqing Li, Yan-Qing Lu, Wei Hu. Colorless and unidirectional diffractive-type solar concentrators compatible with existing windows[J]. PhotoniX. doi: 10.1186/s43074-025-00178-3

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Colorless and unidirectional diffractive-type solar concentrators compatible with existing windows

doi: 10.1186/s43074-025-00178-3

Dewei Zhang^{1, 3},
Zhenghao Guo¹,
Chun-Ting Xu¹,
Jianqing Li^{1, 3},
Yan-Qing Lu^{1, 2},
Wei Hu^{1, 2, 3}

1.
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optical Sensing and Manipulation, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China
2.
Jiangsu Physical Science Research Center, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China
3.
Wujin-NJU Institute of Future Technology, Changzhou, 213100, China

Funds: This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFA1203700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (T2488302, 62035008 and 62405129), and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20233001).

Received Date: 2025-05-14
Accepted Date: 2025-07-15
Rev Recd Date: 2025-06-11

Available Online: 2025-07-28

Abstract

Abstract

Solar concentrators laterally converge solar energy to the side of architectural glass and are attractive candidates for building-integrated photovoltaics. Present available luminescent-type and scattering-type solar concentrators suffer from omnidirectional waveguide induced low efficiency, coloring/hazing restrained aesthetic quality, and poor compatibility with existing architectural glass. Here, we propose a diffractive solar concentrator via directly coating cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layers onto the architectural glass. The stacked CLC layers with submicron lateral periodic alignment enable broadband and unidirectional waveguiding inside the glass, and thus supply a high-efficient platform for transmissive solar energy capturing with merits of high aesthetic quality and economic viability. A 1-inch-diameter prototype powers a 10-mW fan outdoors, and a typical 2-m-wide window is calculated to concentrate solar energy by 50 times. The design is expected to bring a global terawatt-scale green energy supply and billion-ton annual carbon emission reduction, meeting with the sustainable development of human society.
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References(40)

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