Please join us for an expository talk by Western's own Professor Steve McDowall, whose talk details are given below. Pizza will be served.

Talk Title: Modeling Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Talk Abstract: A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a large glass panel which collects sunlight over its area and concentrates the light to the edges where a thin strip of photovoltaics converts the energy into electricity.  Faculty and students in the chemistry department synthesize the molecules used in LSCs and make small prototypes.  To measure their performance, we illuminate the LSC with a laser at varying distances from an edge and collect and measure the light coming out from that edge.  We do this over a wide range of wavelengths and at around 5 distances.  From this data we wish to determine certain physical characteristics of the LSC made.  In particular, we seek the degree of Raman scattering, attenuation due to other imperfections, and the concentration of the molecules within the host matrix.  To estimate these parameters, I have developed a stochastic model which takes into account the many complicated physical laws involved in photon transport through such an LSC.  The challenge then becomes finding parameters for which the predicted output best fits the measurements.  I’ll briefly tell you the story of the development of this technology at Western and introduce the mathematics involved in the modeling.