Hot carrier-based near-field thermophotovoltaics with energy selective contacts

Abstract

A model of the thermophotovoltaic device combining a near-field thermal emitter and a hot-carrier solar cell is established. The fluctuating electromagnetic near-field theory for the radiative thermal transport and Landauer's formula for the carrier extraction are introduced. Expressions for the efficiency and the power output of the device are derived. How the voltage and the extraction energy of the energy selective contacts affect the performance of the device is revealed. The results show that the efficiency of the proposed device can be greatly enhanced by exploiting the radiation between the emitter and the cell and extracting carriers through electron tunneling effects.

Hot-carrier thermophotovoltaic systems

“…We note that recent studies that have also considered hot carriers in TPV systems have primarily focused on the selection of materials comprising the emitter and cell, and only pertain to near-field operation [42,43]. By contrast, in this work, we identify performance limits of hot-carrier-based TPV (HCTPV) systems in the far field.…”

Analysis of near field radiation among lithography-free metal-dielectric-metal perfect absorbers with a combined numerical method

“…With the new analytical tool, we will be able to understand the characteristics of near-field thermal radiation from far-field perfect light absorbers. The understanding may provide a direction to design near-field thermal emitters that can achieve long-distance photon tunneling and high-intensity quasi-monochromatic near-field radiation, which can be valuable in solar energy harvesting with photovoltaic devices [16][17][18].…”