Scientists have explored how to use an infrared laser to remotely charge devices. The system can supply up to 30 meters distance and 400 milliwatts of power. This amount of power is sufficient to charge small sensors and other technologies, and with developments, it may be possible to charge mobile devices as well.
The work, published in the journal Optics Express, focuses on a method called distributed laser charging. The report shows that an infrared laser (a wavelength that does not harm the skin or eyes) shines through a spherical ball lens on a device with a 10 x 10 millimeter photovoltaic receiver.
The receiver is small enough to connect to many mobile devices and sensors, and the team demonstrated that it can convert 400 milliwatts to 85 milliwatts of electrical power. Although this result is small, it is quite an important achievement.
Team leader Jinyong Ha, from Sejong University in South Korea, said in a press release, “While most other approaches require the receiving device to be in a dedicated charging station or stationary, distributed laser charging is self-sustaining without tracking processes, as long as the transmitter and receiver are in line of sight of each other. “Also, if an object or person blocks the line of sight, it automatically switches to a safe low power distribution mode.”
While the versatility is exciting, the team needs to work on a variety of issues. The first of these, predictably, is the power quantity issue. At the current rate, it will take you more than a hundred hours to charge your mobile phone. And the system can currently only charge one device at a time, but thanks to the spherical lens, it can track that device around the room.
“The ability to power devices wirelessly could eliminate the need to carry power cables for our phones or tablets,” says Ha. “It can also power a variety of sensors, such as those in Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors used to monitor processes in manufacturing plants.”
Attempts to transmit electricity wirelessly have a very similar history to electrical power. Nikola Tesla thought it could be done. Since then, there has been and continues to be a lot of work on many different approaches, including ways to power using wireless routers.
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