Designing photovoltaic concentrators using holographic lens recorded in nickel ion doped photopolymer material

Recording process and characterization of high efficiency holographic lens on nickel ion doped methylene blue sensitized photopolymer material is presented. The material showed more than 85% diffraction efficiency in the blue, red and green regions at low spatial frequency. Studies on angular selectivity and wavelength selectivity of the material prove that low spatial frequency optical elements were more suitable for solar applications. The I-V measurements of solar cell, combined with holographic lens, were done for checking the suitability of using holographic lens as “solar concentrators”. Current density of the solar cell increased three times with this combined device on laser exposure. Also holographic lenses were angle multiplexed using variable time scheduling method which is proposed as an alternate way for minimizing the tracking mechanism of sun light.