Remote Electric Powering by Germanium Photovoltaic Conversion of an Erbium-Fiber Laser Beam

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of a Germanium photovoltaic panel to convert high-power Erbium-fiber laser beams into electricity for remote, off-grid applications, demonstrating promising efficiency and power output predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 32-element monocrystalline Germanium PV panel designed specifically for harvesting power from high-power Erbium-fiber laser beams.

Findings

Predicted electrical output of 660 to 1510 Watts for 4000-10000 Watt laser power.

Thermal and infrared simulations support the panel's efficiency at various temperatures.

The panel is constructed from commercial Ge wafers, enabling practical implementation.

Abstract

The commercially available 4000-Watt continuous-wave Erbium-doped-fiber laser, emitting at the 1567-nanometer wavelength where the atmosphere has high transmission, provides an opportunity for harvesting electric power at remote off the grid locations using a multi-module photovoltaic receiver panel. This paper proposes a 32-element monocrystalline thick-layer Germanium photovoltaic panel for efficient harvesting of a collimated 1.13-meter-diameter beam.The 0.78-meter squared PV panel is constructed from commercial Ge wafers. For incident continuous-wave laser-beam power in the 4000 to 10000 Watt range, our thermal and electrical and infrared simulations predict 660 to 1510 Watts of electrical output at panel temperatures of 350 to 423 Kelvin.