Patent ID: 8354583

Claim:
A solar energy conversion system comprising: a substantially flat waveguide arrangement having a longitudinal core axis and having at least one light input and being configured to provide radiation propagation along the longitudinal core axis by effect of total internal reflection, the waveguide arrangement comprising: a core unit for passing input solar radiation, received from the light input, along the longitudinal core axis of said core unit; and a cladding material arrangement interfacing with the core unit along said longitudinal core axis of the core unit, said cladding material arrangement being configured as an array of spaced-apart solar cells having different band gaps and arranged in a descending order of their optical absorption energy threshold along the longitudinal core axis of said core unit to thereby successively interact with the radiation passing through said core unit along the longitudinal core axis, the solar cells having different optical absorption ranges, such that an interface between the core unit and the cladding material arrangement spectrally splits photons of the input solar radiation while propagating through the core unit along the longitudinal core axis by causing each of the solar cells to absorb photons of a different wavelengths, while reflecting photons of other wavelengths to allow their interaction with successive solar cells, resulting in that the input solar radiation is successively absorbed by said array of solar cells and thereby converted into electricity.