Methods to harvest electromagnetic energy during subsurface high power laser transmission

An optical fiber, comprising:

• an optical fiber core;
• an optical cladding disposed radially around the optical fiber core;
• at least two harvesting cells that are discontinuous and disposed axially along the optical cladding to harvest energy lost during the high-power laser transmission, each harvesting cell comprising:
• an anode surrounding the optical cladding;
• a photovoltaic layer comprising a polymer-based photovoltaic material disposed radially around and electrically connected to the anode;
• and
• a cathode disposed radially around the photovoltaic layer and electrically connected to the photovoltaic layer,
• wherein the photovoltaic layer is adapted to convert the energy lost into a voltage difference, and
• an electrical connection connecting the anode of a first one of the at least two harvesting cells and the cathode of a second one of the at least two harvesting cells to combine respective voltage differences,
• wherein the optical fiber has a length exceeding 1 kilometer.