Optical wireless power transmission at long wavelengths

Abstract

Lasers diodes convert electrical power to a highly collimated beam of Optical power that may propagate over meters with insignificant losses. At the the other end of this optical link Photovoltaic diodes may be used to retrieve electrical power. This point-to-point wireless power transmission is safe if all the optical power is accounted for using an information feedback from the receiver. In addition, safety can also be guaranteed by monitoring the periphery of the optical beam. Optical fields at long wavelengths >; 1400nm have lower absorption losses and have higher threshold power density ((P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">optical</sub> (W))/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) for human safety. We present various technological challenges in the design and preliminary experimental results of such a system which may be integrated into compact packages.