A high-irradiance solar furnace for photovoltaic characterization and nanomaterial synthesis

A high-irradiance solar furnace geared toward (a) elucidating the distinctive physics of concentrator photovoltaics and (b) driving high-temperature reactors for the generation of novel nanostructures is described, with a target irradiance up to 12 W/mm2. The opto-mechanical design permits real-sun flash illumination at a millisecond time scale so that solar cells can be characterized with only insubstantial increases in cell temperature even at irradiance levels of thousands of suns.