Researchers at GW have developed a novel, cost-effective, energy-efficient solution to produce electrical energy from a laser light source when transmitted through free-space in vacuum using a photovoltaic (PV) array. The light source can also include other man-made optical energy sources while the propagation medium can include mediums such as air or water. The disclosed invention can typically be used in applications that involve laser power beams and these can include systems associated with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), systems associated with ground-based sensor networks as can be appreciated.
The disclosed invention can be implemented as either a system, a method, or as a device as can be appreciated. The system or method or device can include various aspects as follows: (i) a radially symmetric array of photovoltaic cells connected in series as strings; (ii) with each cell in the array has an energy storage element connected in parallel to the cell. In an embodiment, the radially symmetric array under illumination of a radially symmetric laser beam, Gaussian or otherwise, can illuminate each of the “n” cells (see attached figure) of a string uniformly, and thus the cells can be current matched in each string. In another embodiment, the full power of the array can be maximized with minimal loss due to non-uniform illumination.
Fig. 1 – One example of the disclosed Invention
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