DPAL: A New Class of Lasers for CW Power Beaming at Ideal Photovoltaic Cell Wavelengths
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Source
- 702; Conference: 2nd International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, Sendai (JP), 10/20/2003--10/23/2003; Other Information: PBD: 15 Sep 2003
- Subject
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY APERTURES
CESIUM
EFFICIENCY
HYDROXIDES
LASER POWER TRANSMISSION
LASERS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
POTASSIUM
PROPULSION
RUBIDIUM
SILICON
WAVELENGTHS
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0094-243X
The new class of diode pumped alkali vapor lasers (DPALs) offers high efficiency cw laser beams at wavelengths which efficiently couple to photovoltaic (PV) cells: silicon cells at 895 nm (cesium), and GaAs cells at 795 nm (rubidium) and at 770 nm (potassium). DPAL electrical efficiencies of 25-30% are projected, enabling PV cell efficiencies {approx}40% (Si) and {approx}60% (GaAs). Near-diffraction-limited DPAL device power scaling into the multi-kilowatt regime from a single aperture is projected.