Design of an indium arsenide cell for near-field thermophotovoltaic devices

Milovich, Daniel; Villa, Juan Luis; Antolín, E.; Datas, Alejandro; Martı́, Antonio; Vaillon, Rodolphe; Francoeur, Mathieu

doi:10.1117/1.jpe.10.025503

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…A nanoscale vacuum gap (d) separates the emitter and the cell. While the method presented here is general, an InAs p-n junction is chosen as the active region due to its narrow bandgap (Eg = 0.354 eV at room temperature) and high quantum efficiency [25,26]. The p-doped and n-doped InAs layers with thicknesses dp and dn are subdivided by a nonuniform mesh to determine the local photogeneration rate and to solve the charge transport equations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[44] without considering the free-carrier contributions. Free-carrier contributions were included by Milovich et al [26] using a Drude-Lorentz model, but this is not the main focus of the present study. The dielectric functions of ITO and Au are modeled by a Drude model The effects of temperature and lattice vibration on the dielectric function of ITO are neglected.…”

Section: B Parametrization Of the Near-field Inas Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial profiles of photon chemical potential in near-field thermophotovoltaic cells

Feng

Tervo

Vasileska

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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Emitted photons stemming from the radiative recombination of electron-hole pairs carry chemical potential in radiative energy converters. This luminescent effect can substantially alter the local net photogeneration in near-field thermophotovoltaic cells. Several assumptions involving the luminescent effect are commonly made in modeling photovoltaic devices; in particular, the photon chemical potential is assumed to be zero or a constant prescribed by the bias voltage. The significance of photon chemical potential depends upon the emitter temperature, the semiconductor properties, and the injection level. Hence, these assumptions are questionable in thermophotovoltaic devices operating in the near-field regime. In the present work, an iterative solver that combines fluctuational electrodynamics with the drift-diffusion model is developed to tackle the coupled photon and charge transport problem, enabling the determination of the spatial profile of photon chemical potential beyond the detailed balance approach. The difference between the results obtained by allowing the photon chemical potential to vary spatially and by assuming a constant value demonstrates the limitations of the conventional approaches. This study is critically important for performance evaluation of near-field thermophotovoltaic systems.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Parametrization Of the Near-field Inas Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial profiles of photon chemical potential in near-field thermophotovoltaic cells

Feng

Tervo

Vasileska

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…The tandem cell consists of two -on-TPV subcells: an InAs bottom cell and a GaInAsSb top cell. Because an InAs cell has a narrow bandgap and can operate at room temperatures [44,45], we selected it as a bottom cell. For a wider-bandgap top cell, we chose Ga In 1− As Sb 1− quaternary semiconductor of which electrical and optical properties can be tuned according to the and composition ratio.…”

Section: Theoretical Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive analysis of optimized near-field tandem thermophotovoltaic system

Song,

Choi,

Lim

et al. 2021

Preprint

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It is well known that performance of a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) device can be enhanced if the vacuum gap between the thermal emitter and the TPV cell becomes nanoscale due to the photon tunneling of evanescent waves. Having multiple bandgaps, multi-junction TPV cells have received attention as an alternative way to improve its performance by selectively absorbing the spectral radiation in each subcell. In this work, we comprehensively analyze the optimized nearfield tandem TPV system consisting of the thin-ITO-covered tungsten emitter (at 1500 K) and GaInAsSb/InAs monolithic interconnected tandem TPV cell (at 300 K). We develop a simulation model by coupling the near-field radiation solved by fluctuational electrodynamics and the diffusion-recombination-based charge transport equations. The optimal configuration of the near-field tandem TPV system obtained by the genetic algorithm achieves the electrical power output of 8.41 W/cm 2 and the conversion efficiency of 35.6% at the vacuum gap of 100 nm. We show that two resonance modes (i.e., surface plasmon polaritons supported by the ITOvacuum interface and the confined waveguide mode in the tandem TPV cell) greatly contribute to the enhanced performance of the optimized system. We also show that the near-field tandem TPV system is superior to the single-cell-based near-field TPV system in both power output and conversion efficiency through loss analysis. Interestingly, the optimization performed with the objective function of the conversion efficiency leads to the current matching condition for the tandem TPV system regardless of the vacuum gap distances.

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“…Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFHT) has attracted a lot of attention over the past years for potential applications such as energy conversion, [1][2][3][4][5] active thermal control, [6][7][8][9] or for more fundamental studies on the effect of various material platforms, [10][11][12][13][14] material geometries, 15 or external fields. 16 Near-field thermal radiation consists of evanescent electromagnetic coupling occurring between two bodies at subwavelength distances, greatly increasing the radiative exchange beyond conventional laws of thermal radiation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[39][40][41][42][43] Current experimental platforms all rely on unique, custombuilt systems, on which it is difficult to integrate new materials to experimentally study and confirm existing theoretical work on NFHT. There is consequently a substantial imbalance between a large body of theoretically investigated phenomena, 1,2,[6][7][8][10][11][12]14,15,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]44 and of relatively modest experimental capabilities. Due do their highly custom nature, experimental platforms are typically reported only once in scientific literature and are rarely used again as a systematic tool for studying other NFHT effects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High Resolution Measurement of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer enabled by Nanomechanical Resonators

Giroux,

Zhang,

Snell

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFHT) research currently suffers from an imbalance between numerous theoretical studies, as opposed to experimental reports that remain, in proportion, relatively scarce. Existing experimental platforms all rely on unique custom-built devices on which it is difficult to integrate new materials and structures for studying the breadth of theoretically proposed phenomena. Here we show high-resolution NFHT measurements using, as our sensing element, silicon nitride (SiN) freestanding nanomembranes-a widely available platform routinely used in materials and cavity optomechanics research. We measure NFHT by tracking the high mechanical quality (Q) factor (> 2 × 10 6 ) resonance of a membrane placed in the near-field of a hemispherical hot object. We find that high Q-factor enables a temperature resolution (1.2 × 10 −6 K) that is unparalleled in previous NFHT experiments. Results are in good agreement with a custom-built model combining heat transport in nanomembranes and the effect of non-uniform stress/temperature on the resonator eigenmodes.

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Design of an indium arsenide cell for near-field thermophotovoltaic devices

Cited by 20 publications

References 44 publications

Spatial profiles of photon chemical potential in near-field thermophotovoltaic cells

Spatial profiles of photon chemical potential in near-field thermophotovoltaic cells

Comprehensive analysis of optimized near-field tandem thermophotovoltaic system

High Resolution Measurement of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer enabled by Nanomechanical Resonators

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