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This feature issue highlights contributions from authors who presented their research at the OSA Light, Energy and the Environment Congress, held in Leipzig, Germany from November 14 to 17, 2016.
© 2017 Optical Society of America
The OSA Light, Energy, and the Environment (LEE) congress offers a comprehensive platform for scientists and engineers spanning a variety of disciplines involved in exploring the frontiers of optical and photonic approaches to advance energy and environmental research. This research focus includes technologies for energy harvesting, monitoring energy usage, characterizing effects energy production has on the environment, remote sensing, and a variety of related spectroscopic techniques. With energy production and usage and all issues connected to it being a key challenge to a sustainable future, this congress serves as an important platform to share advances and perspectives in these fields.
Now in its eighth year, the OSA LEE congress has evolved into an established meeting for researchers from both fundamental research institutions as well as from industry, which underlines the relevance of the topics being discussed. The LEE congress 2016 took place in the Kongresshalle in Leipzig from November 14 to 17, 2016, and was organized by OSA and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Halle, Germany), Fraunhofer IMWS (Halle, Germany) and Fraunhofer IOF (Jena, Germany). That year, it consisted of six topical meetings: Optical Nanostructures and Advanced Materials for Photovoltaics (PV), Optics for Solar Energy (SOLAR), Solid-State Lighting (SSL), Optical Instrumentation for Energy & Environmental Applications (E2), and, as new additions to the congress, Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) and Hyperspectral Imaging and Sounding of the Environment (HISE).
This feature issue is a sample of works presented at the 2016 LEE Congress and consists of 11 papers providing a glimpse on the quality, depth, and breadth of the works discussed therein. Each of the submissions went through the standard Optics Express peer-review process, ensuring the highest quality of published work.
The Topical Meetings Optical Nanostructures and Advanced Materials for Photovoltaics (PV) and Optics for Solar Energy (SOLAR) discuss approaches for efficient solar energy systems for energy production. Köppel et al. [1] demonstrate how tailored nano textures introduce light management in thin-film crystalline silicon solar cells to enhance the photo-current and thus conversion efficiency. Photonic crystals are another efficient way to increase the amount of light coupled into solar cells, as Dottermusch et al. [2] show in their paper for printable, solution processable nanocrystal solar cells. Vismara et al. [3] investigate BaSi2 as a new material for photovoltaic energy conversion. They show that this material is able to achieve high photo-currents for very thin film thicknesses. Material science always was of great importance in solar energy conversion, especially interface engineering, as investigated by Chen et al. [4]. They demonstrate a robust interface engineering of Ruthenium acetylacetonate for hybrid perovskite solar cells. Furthermore, Jäger et al. [5] present numerical work on an optimized monolithic planar perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell.
The sample submissions from the Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS) topical meeting present a variety of unique interferometer instrument configurations, all employing the hybridization of various aspects of Fourier spectroscopy with other optical and photonic techniques. Polli et al. [6] present a time-domain birefringent Fourier spectrometer as a mutliplexing input to enhance the speed and efficiency of Excitation-Emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy for both coherent and incoherent sources. Lenzner and Diels [7] introduce a hybrid Sagnac interferometer employing a transmission grating which yields a self-calibrating Fourier spectrometer with enhanced spectral resolution. Nie et al. [8] present a compact static Fourier spectrometer employing the spatial coupling of evanescent waves. The CMOS-fabrication techniques used to construct this device result in a very small footprint that is ready for integration with other lab-on-a-chip systems deployed ina a variety of applications.
The Topical Meeting Solid-State Lighting (SSL) focuses on the advances of various solid-state lighting technologies from III-V compound semiconductor-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to organic, quantum dot and perovskite LEDs. The topics include materials science, device physics, system-level manufacturing, and applications for human centric lighting. Yang et al. [9] develop a series of reddish-orange emitting phosphors based on Ba3Lu(PO4)3:Sm3+, which are potential for improving the color-rendering index of the conventional white LEDs by solving the deficiency in the red region. For the demand of transmitters in visible light communication (VLC), it is highly desirable to increase spectral efficiency by using pulse amplitude modulation with discrete optical output levels and avoiding non-linearity effects. Griffiths et al. [10] present a highly compact integrated approach by using an array of micro-LED pixels integrated with CMOS driving electronics for discrete optical signal generation, achieving data rates up to 200 Mb/s and spectral efficiencies up to 3.96 bits/s/Hz. Hu et al. [11] develop a model for converting device-specific control signals to chromaticity coordinates to explore the usability of three color control interfaces based on RGB (red, green, blue), HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) and opponent color mixing systems for tunable LED lighting systems.
In summary, this feature issue represents a part of the works presented at the 2016 OSA Light, Energy and the Environment (LEE) Congress held in Leipzig, Germany. The topics featured in this issue demonstrate some of the highlights of this LEE Congress and opportunities in optics research to solve some of today’s leading energy and environmental challenges. Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to local chairs and everyone who made every effort to make the 2016 LEE Congress a successful event. Our special thanks also go to the Program Committee members, the staff at OSA, all authors and presenters, and all the Congress attendees. The 2017 LEE Congress will be held in Boulder, USA, November 6-9, 2017. Please join us in making the LEE Congress in Boulder another successful event.Alexander Sprafke,* Andreas Behrendt, Jianguo Liu, Locke Spencer, Jianxin Tang. *Lead Editor, Co-Editors, LEE-2016
References and links
1. G. Köppel, D. Eisenhauer, B. Rech, and C. Becker, “Combining tailor-made textures for light incoupling and light trapping in liquid phase crystallized silicon thin-film solar cells,” Opt. Express. in press.
2. S. Dottermusch, A. Quintilla, G. Gomard, A. Roslizar, V. R. Voggu, B. A. Simonsen, J. S. Park, D. R. Pernik, B. A. Koregel, U. W. Paetzold, and B. S. Richards, “Infiltrated photonic crystals for light-trapping in CuInSe2 nanocrystal-based solar cells,” Opt. Express. in press (2017).
3. R. Vismara, O. Isabella, and M. Zeman, “Back-contacted BaSi2 solar cells: an optical study,” Opt. Express 25(8), A402–A408 (2017). [CrossRef]
4. W. Chen, S. Luo, Z. Wan, X. Feng, X. Liu, and Z. He, “Ruthenium acetylacetonate in interface engineering for high performance planar hybrid perovskite solar cells,” Opt. Express 25(8), A253–A263 (2017). [CrossRef]
5. K. Jäger, L. Korte, B. Rech, and S. Albrecht, “Numerical optical optimization of monolithic planar perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with regular and inverted device architectures,” Opt. Express. in press (2017).
6. A. Perri, F. Preda, C. D’Andrea, E. Thyrhaug, G. Cerullo, D. Polli, and J. Hauer, “Excitation-emission Fourier-transform spectroscopy based on a birefringent interferometer,” Opt. Express. in press (2017).
7. M. Lenzner and J.-C. Diels, “A Sagnac Fourier spectrometer,” Opt. Express25(8), A2447–A453.
8. X. Nie, E. Ryckeboer, G. Roelkens, and R. Baets, “CMOS-compatible broadband co-propagative stationary Fourier transform spectrometer integrated on a silicon nitride photonics platform,” Opt. Express 25(8), A409–A418 (2017). [CrossRef]
9. Z. Yang, D. Xu, and J. Sun, “Synthesis and luminescence properties of Ba3Lu(PO4)3:Sm3+ phosphor for white light-emitting diodes,” Opt. Express 25(8), A391–A401 (2017). [CrossRef]
10. A. Griffiths, M. Islim, J. Herrnsdorf, J. McKendry, R. Henderson, H. Haas, E. Gu, and M. Dawson, “CMOS-integrated GaN LED array for discrete power level stepping in visible light communications,” Opt. Express 25(8), A338–A345 (2017). [CrossRef]
11. W. Hu and W. Davis, “Development and evaluation of colour control interfaces for LED lighting,” Opt. Express 25(8), A346–A360 (2017). [CrossRef]