A solid or liquid fuel to plasma to electricity power source that provides at least one of electrical and thermal power comprising (i) at least one reaction cell for the catalysis of atomic hydrogen to form hydrinos, (ii) a chemical fuel mixture comprising at least two components chosen from: a source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst; a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; reactants to form the source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst and a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; one or more reactants to initiate the catalysis of atomic hydrogen; and a material to cause the fuel to be highly conductive, (iii) a fuel injection system such as a railgun shot injector, (iv) at least one set of electrodes that confine the fuel and an electrical power source that provides repetitive short bursts of low-voltage, high-current electrical energy to initiate rapid kinetics of the hydrino reaction and an energy gain due to forming hydrinos to form a brilliant-light emitting plasma, (v) a product recovery system such as at least one of an augmented plasma railgun recovery system and a gravity recovery system, (vi) a fuel pelletizer or shot maker comprising a smelter, a source or hydrogen and a source of H.sub.2O, a dripper and a water bath to form fuel pellets or shot, and an agitator to feed shot into the injector, and (vii) a power converter capable of converting the high-power light output of the cell into electricity such as a concentrated solar power device comprising a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) photoelectric cells or a plurality of photoelectric cells, and a UV window.

A photovoltaic device that includes a p-n junction of first type III-V semiconductor material layers, and a window layer of a second type III-V semiconductor material on the light receiving end of the p-n junction, wherein the second type III-V semiconductor material has a greater band gap than the first type III-V semiconductor material, and the window layer of the photovoltaic device has a cross-sectional area of microscale.

A photovoltaic device that includes a p-n junction of first type III-V semiconductor material layers, and a window layer of a second type III-V semiconductor material on the light receiving end of the p-n junction, wherein the second type III-V semiconductor material has a greater band gap than the first type III-V semiconductor material, and the window layer of the photovoltaic device has a cross-sectional area of microscale.

A photovoltaic device configured to substantially avoid radiative recombination of photo-generated carriers, reduce loss of energy of the photo-generated carriers through the phonon emission, extract photo-generated carriers substantially exclusively from the multi-frequency satellite valley(s) of the bandstructure of the used semiconductor material as opposed to the single predetermined extremum of the bandstructure. Methodologies of fabrication and operation of such a device.

A photovoltaic device configured to substantially avoid radiative recombination of photo-generated carriers, reduce loss of energy of the photo-generated carriers through the phonon emission, extract photo-generated carriers substantially exclusively from the multi-frequency satellite valley(s) of the bandstructure of the used semiconductor material as opposed to the single predetermined extremum of the bandstructure. Methodologies of fabrication and operation of such a device.

A monolithic metamorphic multi-junction solar cell comprising a first III-V subcell and a second III-V subcell and a third III-V subcell and a fourth Ge subcell, wherein the subcells are stacked on top of each other in the indicated order, and the first subcell forms the topmost subcell, and a metamorphic buffer is formed between the third subcell and the fourth subcell and all subcells each have an n-doped emitter layer and a p-doped base layer, and the emitter layer of the second subcell is greater than the base layer.

A monolithic metamorphic multi-junction solar cell comprising a first III-V subcell and a second III-V subcell and a third III-V subcell and a fourth Ge subcell, wherein the subcells are stacked on top of each other in the indicated order, and the first subcell forms the topmost subcell, and a metamorphic buffer is formed between the third subcell and the fourth subcell and all subcells each have an n-doped emitter layer and a p-doped base layer, and the emitter layer of the second subcell is greater than the base layer.

A monolithic metamorphic multi-junction solar cell comprising a first III-V subcell and a second III-V subcell and a third III-V subcell and a fourth Ge subcell, wherein the subcells are stacked on top of each other in the indicated order, and the first subcell forms the topmost subcell, and a metamorphic buffer is formed between the third subcell and the fourth subcell and all subcells each have an n-doped emitter layer and a p-doped base layer, and the emitter layer of the second subcell is greater than the base layer.

A monolithic metamorphic multi-junction solar cell comprising a first III-V subcell and a second III-V subcell and a third III-V subcell and a fourth Ge subcell, wherein the subcells are stacked on top of each other in the indicated order, and the first subcell forms the topmost subcell, and a metamorphic buffer is formed between the third subcell and the fourth subcell and all subcells each have an n-doped emitter layer and a p-doped base layer, and the emitter layer of the second subcell is greater than the base layer.

Refractive optical element designs are provided for high geometric optical efficiency over a wide range of incident angles. To minimize Fresnel reflection losses, the refractive optical element designs employ multiple encapsulant materials, differing in refractive index. Concentrator photovoltaic subassemblies are formed by embedding a high efficiency photovoltaic device within the refractive optical element, along with appropriate electrical contacts and heat sinks. Increased solar electric power output is obtained by employing a single-junction III-V material structure with light-trapping structures.