Patent ID: 7619159

Claim:
A photovoltaic cavity converter module for admitting therein concentrated radiation produced by a laser emitting a highly collimated power beam of coherent light having a selected wavelength and energy, and converting the admitted laser radiation at a high efficiency into electrical power, said module comprising: (a) a housing having a cavity of generally optimized closed shape inside said housing, said cavity having a light input aperture or opening of a selected diameter with a total aperture area of A i , said aperture for admitting incident radiation thereon produced by the laser into the cavity, the cavity having a total internal surface area A s and wherein the ratio of A i to A s is about 0.01 or less such that the aperture allows only a relatively small portion of the radiation admitted into the cavity to escape out of the cavity, thereby trapping in the cavity the incident radiation admitted therein in an amount proportional to the ratio of the total internal surface area to the total entrance aperture area to thereby define the total energy trapped in the cavity, the beam produced by the laser having a diameter greater than the aperture area; (b) a concentrator exterior of the housing and adjacent the light input aperture or opening, wherein the concentrator is configured to focus the beam to a selected beam diameter smaller than the diameter of the aperture or opening and to direct the focused beam into the housing through the light input aperture to thereby capture the energy of the collimated laser beam; and (c) a plurality of photovoltaic cells within said cavity, said photovoltaic cells having an appropriate energy bandgap maximally responsive to said wavelength for generating said electrical power.