Phase control of a nano-structured light-harvesting architecture

Efficient solar-energy harvesting is fundamental to solar cell technology. Much research effort has been devoted to the construction of new light-harvesting structures, including the use of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), to improve the widespread availability of solar cells. In this research, a new light-harvesting architecture is developed, which utilizes quantum dots. The proposed architecture is composed of quantum phase-locked loops (QPLLs) to enhance the harvesting efficiency of QD solar cells by utilizing feedback control principles. The purpose of QPLL is to synchronize the phases of monochromatic light harvested by the antenna systems. This paper addresses deterministic modeling and control formulation of the QPLL within our conceptual framework. The QPLL consists of a tracking controller and a proportional-integral (PI) regulator. The QPLLs are simulated with external fluctuations to evaluate the performance of the controllers. Simulation results show that the tracking controller achieves robust and satisfactory performance. The PI regulator is more sensitive to external fluctuations and the nominal operating point. Our results demonstrate the possibility of improving light-harvesting efficiency by utilizing feedback control principles.