Spectrum-Splitting Diffractive Optical Element of High Concentration Factor and High Optical Efficiency for Three-Junction Photovoltaics

A spectrum-splitting and beam-concentrating (SSBC) diffractive optical element (DOE) for three-junction photovoltaics (PV) system is designed and fabricated by five-circle micro-fabrication. The incident solar light is efficiently split into three sub-spectrum ranges and strongly concentrated on the focal plane, which can be directly utilized by suitable spectrum-matching solar cells. The system concentration factor reaches 12\times. Moreover, the designed wavelengths (450 nm, 550 nm and 650 nm) are spatially distributed on the focal plane, in good agreement with the theoretical results. The average optical efficiency of all the cells over the three designed wavelengths is 60.07%. The SSBC DOE with a high concentration factor and a high optical efficiency provides a cost-effective approach to achieve higher PV conversion efficiencies.