Spectrally-tunable Dielectric Grating-based Metasurface for Broadband Planar Light Concentration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectrally-tunable dielectric metasurface that acts as a planar light concentrator, allowing windows to transmit visible light while guiding near-infrared sunlight to integrated solar cells for energy harvesting, enhancing building sustainability.

Contribution

The work presents a novel silicon nitride grating metasurface that enables broadband, polarization-independent guiding of NIR light through windows, combining natural lighting with solar energy harvesting in a single device.

Findings

Achieved 5.25% optical guiding efficiency in NIR (700-1000 nm)

Demonstrated 4.2% power conversion efficiency with integrated solar cell

Enabled visible light transmission for natural room lighting

Abstract

The energy consumption of buildings is increasing at a rapid pace due to urbanization, while net-zero energy buildings powered by renewable sources offer a green and sustainable solution. However, the limited rooftop space available on skyscrapers and multi-story buildings poses a challenge for large-scale integration of solar photovoltaic modules. Conventional photovoltaics solutions such as silicon solar panels block the visible light from entering the building rending them unfeasible to cover all building surfaces. Here, we demonstrate a novel dielectric metasurface (based-on silicon nitride grating) acting as a planar light concentrator. We integrate this functional device onto a window glass transmitting visible light while simultaneously guiding the near infrared portion (NIR) of sunlight to the edges of the glass window where it can be converted to electricity by a small PV module. Utilizing the grating design flexibility, we tune the spectra to enable guiding of the near NIR sunlight portion and realize polarization independence demonstrated using finite difference time domain simulations. Experimentally, we observe about 5.25% of optical guiding efficiency in the NIR region (700-1000 nm), leaving majority of the visible portion to be transmitted for natural room lighting. Integrating the solar cell at the window edge, we find a power conversion efficiency of about 4.2% of NIR light on a prototype of area 25 mm 2. We confirm that the majority of the loss is due to the absorption, scattering and fabrication non-uniformity over large area which can be further optimized in future. Such a functional window combining renewable energy generation, with room lighting, and building-envelope reduction could mitigate urban heat-islanding issues of modern cities.