Classical behaviour of output light emitted by the edge of a luminescent solar concentrator

A straightforward technique for measuring the output light from one edge of a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) was recently developed. A set of measurements was performed both on conventional LSCs and thin-film composite LSCs, showing interesting differences between two types of devices. In order to investigate the origin of this behaviour, various models have been developed by our groups. In this work we present the experimental setup and main results, together with a simple three-dimensional Monte Carlo code, modelling light re-emission by a LSC and distribution of the output light from the edge under examination. Light is described by means of classical non-interacting free particles undergoing classical optics laws at glass-to-air interfaces. Simulation results agree well with the experimental data and explain the output light distribution close to the edge under examination.