Luminescent Solar Concentrators: Effects Of Shape On Efficiency

The effects of shape and photovoltaic cell placement on efficiency are studied for luminescent solar concentrators. The mean path length of light rays is found to be a poor measure of performance. Simple arguments based on a method of images show that the efficiency grows linearly with detector size h, saturating at h-pA/?, where A is the captation area of the collector, and ? is the attenuation length of radiation in the medium. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that efficiency is relatively independent of collector geometry.