Fresnel Lens Solar-Pumped Laser with Four Rods and Beam Merging Technique for Uniform and Stable Emission under Tracking Error Influence

Bruno D. Tibúrcio, Dawei Liang (), Joana Almeida, Dário Garcia, Miguel Catela, Hugo Costa and Cláudia R. Vistas
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Bruno D. Tibúrcio: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Dawei Liang: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Joana Almeida: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Dário Garcia: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Miguel Catela: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Hugo Costa: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Cláudia R. Vistas: Centro de Física e Investigação Tecnológica, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Significant numerical improvements in Fresnel lens Nd:YAG solar laser collection efficiency, laser quality factors and tracking error compensation capacity by two Fresnel lenses as primary solar concentrators are reported here. A Nd:YAG four-rod side-pumping configuration was investigated. The four-rod side-pumping scheme consisted of two large aspherical lenses and four semi-cylindrical pump cavities, where the Nd:YAG laser rods were placed, enabling an efficient solar pumping of the laser crystals. A 104.4 W continuous-wave multimode solar laser power was achieved, corresponding to 29.7 W/m 2 collection efficiency, which is 1.68 times that of the most efficient experimental Nd:YAG side-pumped solar laser scheme with heliostat–parabolic mirror systems. End-side-pumped configuration has led to the most efficient multimode solar lasers, but it may cause more prejudicial thermal effects, poor beam quality factors and a lack of access to both rod end-faces to optimize the resonant cavity parameters. In the present work, an eight-folding-mirror laser beam merging technique was applied, aiming to attain one laser emission from the four laser rods that consist of the four-rod side-pumping scheme with a higher brightness figure of merit. A 79.8 W multimode laser output power was achieved with this arrangement, corresponding to 22.7 W/m 2 . The brightness figure of merit was 0.14 W, being 1.6, 21.9 and 15.7 times that of previous experimental Nd:YAG solar lasers pumped by Fresnel lenses. A significant advance in tracking error tolerance was also numerically attained, leading to a 1.5 times enhancement in tracking error width at 10% laser power loss (TEW 10% ) compared to previous experimental results.

Keywords: Fresnel lens; four-rod; solar pumping; beam merging; side-pumping; Nd:YAG (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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