Magnolia Solar, a wholly-owned subsidiary Magnolia Solar Corporation, presented a high, broadband transmittance via nanostructured antireflection coated glass at the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing Conference held in Orlando, Florida.
Dr. Roger E. Welser, Chief Technical Officer of Magnolia Solar, revealed the results and also gave a presentation on the importance of quantum dots and quantum well structures for energy harvesting applications in the defense sector.
The demonstration of ultra-high transmittance via nano-coated glass was delivered across various incident angles. It has been shown that 100% transmittance has been attained in certain spectral bands and the average transmittance for simulated sunlight increased significantly. Thus, coating the glass windows with innovative materials comprising of porous silicon dioxide nanorods result in improved transmittance.
Although flat-plate, fixed solar modules produce power all through the day, they suffer from high reflection losses particularly in early morning and late afternoon. The nanostructured coating technology helps decrease these reflection losses and can be used in commercial and military optical window applications. The technology can benefit thin film and crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules using either a glass substrate or a cover glass.