Photoferroelectric solar to electrical conversion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel photoferroelectric charge pump that converts solar energy into DC electricity using cyclic polarization changes, achieving a 2% efficiency with a liquid crystal material.

Contribution

It presents a new charge pump design based on photoferroelectric materials and demonstrates its potential for solar energy conversion.

Findings

Achieved 2% power efficiency with a specific liquid crystal material.

Demonstrated charge transfer through cyclic polarization changes.

Proposed a new method for converting solar energy to electrical energy.

Abstract

We propose a charge pump which converts solar energy into DC electricity. It is based on cyclic changes in the spontaneous electric polarization of a photoferroelectric material, which allows a transfer of charge from a low to a high voltage. To estimate the power efficiency we use a photoferroelectric liquid crystal as the working substance. For a specific choice of material, an efficiency of $2\%$ is obtained.