Output performance of optimized photovoltaic array configurations exposed on nonuniform laser spot

Laser wireless power transmission(LWPT) is a method of transmitting energy at middle/long distance using laser as the carrier, using photovoltaic cell as the receiving end. The efficiency of conversion at the receiving end of the current LWPT system, however, has not yet reached the ideal state, and there is still a significant gap with the optimal efficiency. As is known, the output characteristics of photovoltaic arrays under nonuniform laser irradiation are critical for the optimization of the overall output capability of the laser wireless power transmission system. There are few studies on the performance of PV array at the receiving end and the output characteristics under the combined optical, thermal, and electrical interactions. In this paper, the Quartered Rotational Symmetry(QRS) array configuration is firstly proposed to be applied to the receiving end of a laser wireless power transmission system and is compared with four other array configurations. The results show that the QRS array configuration has the best output performance and the smallest mismatch loss under Gaussian irradiance distribution. Compared to the other array configurations, the maximum output power of the array is improved by at least 24.6 %, and the maximum effective photovoltaic conversion efficiency is improved by about 6 %.