УДК 621.311.243

Development of a technology for creating double-glazed windows that convert solar energy in the infrared range into direct current

Фурер Ольга Вениаминовна – кандидат филологических наук, доцент Поволжского государственного университета телекоммуникаций и информатики.

Цилимбаев Никита Александрович – аспирант Поволжского государственного университета телекоммуникаций и информатики.

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a method for creating chiral glasses that allow one to concentrate the energy of optical waves in the IR range, while visible waves pass through the glasses without absorption. The main idea is the transition from using external transparent elements to concentrate optical energy to creating a concentrator inside the quartz glass itself.

Аннотация: В данной работе предлагается метод создания киральных стекол, позволяющих концентрировать энергию оптических волн в ИК-диапазоне, при этом видимые волны проходят через стекла без поглощения. Основной идей является переход от использования для концентрации оптической энергии внешних прозрачных элементов к созданию концентратора внутри самого кварцевого стекла.

Keywords: chiral metamaterial, container, electromagnetic wave, chiral glasses.

Ключевые слова: метаматериал киральный, контейнер, электромагнитная волна, киральные стекла.

A well-known problem in the field of creating systems for concentrating optical energy is the difficulty of obtaining the effect in planar structures, and most concentrating systems have significant weight and size characteristics. The proposed technology consists in developing a method for frequency-selective concentration of optical energy using double-glazed windows, in which standard quartz glasses are replaced by chiral glasses. The technical result is achieved by using impurities from mirror asymmetric atoms of optically active substances in the structure of quartz glass. Creation of a two-chamber double-glazed window based on chiral glasses allows, at a predetermined wavelength of optical radiation (a number of discrete wavelengths), to convert normally (obliquely) incident optical radiation into re-emission in the internal volume of the double-glazed window.

Thus, the main idea is the transition from using external transparent elements to concentrate optical energy to creating a concentrator inside the quartz glass itself. In fact, a frequency-selective optical energy concentrator is built into standard quartz glass and does not require the use of any lenses, mirrors or other focusing systems to concentrate light waves. Also, unlike solar cells, the device is not external, but the concentration of optical energy is produced inside the quartz glass. The technical result is achieved by using impurities from mirror asymmetric atoms of optically active (chiral) substances in the structure of quartz glass. The creation of a two-chamber double-glazed window based on quartz glasses doped with chiral atoms allows, at a predetermined wavelength of optical radiation (a number of discrete wavelengths), to convert normally (obliquely) incident optical radiation into reradiation in the inner volume of the double-glazed window.

The technology for creating specialized quartz glass for frequency selective concentration of optical energy consists in replacing standard quartz glass with chiral glass, that is, breaking the symmetry of its atomic structure. By "chiral glass" is meant a standard quartz glass in which the symmetry of its atomic structure is broken. Chiral glass is an optical metamaterial based on quartz glass. An optical metamaterial is any artificial environment consisting of a composition of at least two types of natural materials. In the general case, it is a kind of homogeneous container of one type of substance, into which atoms of another substance are doped. In such metamaterials, the phenomenon of spatial dispersion arises and, as a result, they have pronounced frequency and polarization selective properties.

Figure 1.

One of the types of optical metamaterials is chiral (chiral) metamaterials, in which mirror asymmetric atoms (for example, Iceland spar, lithium niobate, and a number of others) act as dopants. Optically active substances have this type of atoms. In this case, the phenomenon of chirality (asymmetry of "left" and "right") occurs in the metamaterial, that is, the appearance of a non-local connection between the vectors of inductions and the strengths of the electric and magnetic fields

A similar effect was found in the mathematical modeling of a double-glazed window with chiral glasses created on the basis of atomic symmetry breaking by changing the concentration ratios of the right and left forms of quartz. Thus, the effect of frequency selective concentration of optical energy is achieved by converting a normally (obliquely) incident electromagnetic wave into its propagation inside chiral glasses and air chambers. This effect is frequency selective and manifests itself at a given wavelength (a number of wavelengths) of the incident optical radiation.

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