title: Performance comparison of four kinds of flat nonimaging Fresnel lenses made of polycarbonates and polymethyl methacrylate for concentrated photovoltaics.
abstract: Solar concentrators made of a single refractive primary optics are limited to a concentration ratio of about 1000× [Opt. Express 19, A280 (2011)], due only to longitudinal chromatic aberration, while mirrors are limited to ∼46,000× by the angular size of the Sun. To reduce the chromatic aberration while keeping cost-effective systems for concentrated photovoltaics, a study of four different kinds of flat Fresnel doublets made of polycarbonates and polymethyl methacrylate is presented. It reveals that Fresnel doublets may have fewer optical losses than non-Fresnel doublets, with a lower lateral chromatic split allowing for even higher concentration ratio.
authors.affiliation: Hololab, Physics Department, Bat. B5a, University of Liege, 17 allée du 6 Août, B-4000 Liege, Belgium. flanguy@ulg.ac.be
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Languy
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Habraken