Light Recycling Using Perovskite Solar Cells in a Half‐Cylinder Photonic Plate for an Energy Efficient Broadband Polarized Light Emission

Abstract

Energy efficiency in many illumination devices is far from optimal. For instance, in liquid crystal displays, a large fraction of the emitted light is lost provided absorbing polarizers are used for the image formation. Herein, a light‐guiding structure to achieve diffuse polarized light emission from the top of the guide, combined with light harvesting and conversion back into electricity of the light with the unwanted polarization is proposed. Key in achieving such a double goal is the use of a half‐cylinder photonic plate for an ergodic light‐guided propagation incorporating a nonabsorbing reflective multilayer light polarizer and perovskite (PVK) solar cells. In the complex combination of micro‐ and nanometric dimensions of the proposed structure, light propagation was resolved using ray optics tracing interlaced with a full wave vector inverse integration approach. A broadband polarization extinction ratio of 0.1 for the light diffused from the top surface is demonstrated, while close to 90% of the s‐polarized light remains trapped and can be recycled back to electricity by the PVK solar cells placed on the front and back ends of the guide. PVK cells are shown to be optimal in such conversion with an overall efficiency ranging from 38 to 52%.

Keywords

• ergodic light propagation
• light guides
• light recycling to electricity
• perovskite solar cells
• polarization