UIDB/00068/2020
Joana Almeida
242 - Ed. I
10536
jla@fct.unl.pt
Research Areas
I obtained my PhD degree in Physics Engineering from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa in December 2017. I did my PhD project Advances in solar-pumped laser efficiency and brightness in the Laser Technology laboratory of CEFITEC on the framework of the PhD studentship grant SFRH/BD/90410/2012 from FCT. On May 2019, I signed a Junior Researcher contract (CEECIND/03081/2017) for six years (Ongoing) through FCT funding for the 1st edition of the competitive Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus.
I embarked on the solar laser field even before starting my PhD and since then, I’ve actively contributed to the major advances in solar-pumped laser, which is considered as one of the most promising technologies in renewable energy research. The endeavors performed by our team over several years to upgrade the performance of this technology led to the production of consecutive world records in solar laser efficiency, putting CEFITEC at the forefront of this research area. Progress in solar-pumped laser efficiency has been particularly noteworthy in the last four years owing to the pioneering experiments triggered by our team with the exploration of Ce:Nd:YAG as a laser gain medium for solar lasers. The design and construction of innovative multirod solar pumping schemes for enabling the simultaneous emission of multiple renewable beams with enhanced thermal performance and efficiency was another key contribution from our team to the most recent breakthroughs in solar-pumped lasers.
I’m currently motivated to exploit the potential of cost-effective solar concentrators combined with innovative multirod configurations in advancing the solar-pumped laser efficiency and capacity to compensate for large solar tracking errors, with the aim of making this sustainable technology more economically competitive, creating more opportunities for its application in the near future.
Main publications
Liang, D.; Almeida, J.; Catela, M.; Costa, H.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Guillot, E.; Vistas, C.R. Lowest threshold solar-pumped Ce:Nd:YAG laser with 2.06% solar-to-TEM00 mode laser conversion efficiency. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 270 (2024): 112817. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2024.112817
Almeida, J.; Liang, D.; Catela, M.; Costa, H.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Guillot, E.; Vistas, C.R. Solar-pumped dual-rod Ce:Nd:YAG laser with 58 W continuous-wave output power and 5.1° tracking error compensation width. Optics Express 31(24) (2023): 40041. http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/oe.507258
Book: Liang, D.; Almeida, J.; Vistas, C.R.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Garcia, D. Solar-Pumped Lasers. Springer, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24785-9
Catela, M.; Liang, D.; Almeida, J.; Costa, H.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Guillot, E.; Vistas, C.R. Stable Emissions from a Four-Rod Nd:YAG Solar Laser with ±0.5° Tracking Error Compensation Capacity. Photonics 10(9) (2023): 1047. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/photonics10091047 Featured on the front page of Photonics
Almeida, J.; Liang, D.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Costa, H.; Catela, M.; Guillot, E.; Vistas, C.R. 40 W continuous wave Ce:Nd:YAG solar laser through a fused silica light guide. Energies 15, 3998 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/en15113998
Liang, D.; Vistas, C.R.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Catela, M.; Costa, H.; Guillot, E.; Almeida, J. Most efficient simultaneous solar laser emissions from three Ce:Nd:YAG rods within a single pump cavity. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 246, 111921 (2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111921 Featured in Laser Focus World
Almeida, J.; Liang, D.; Costa, H.; Garcia, D.; Tibúrcio, B.D.; Catela, M.; Vistas, C.R. Seven-rod pumping concept for simultaneous emission of seven TEM00-mode solar laser beams. Journal of Photonics Energy 10, 038001 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.10.038001 JPE cover
ORCID: 0000-0001-5890-7623
Scopus Author ID: 57203755940
