Parametric characteristics and optimum criteria of a near-field solar thermophotovoltaic system at the maximum efficiency

A review on current development of thermophotovoltaic technology in heat recovery

“…This can result in a significant thermoelectric conversion efficiency. The conventional structural design method iteratively optimizes the required parameters by solving Maxwell's system of equations and full-field electromagnetic properties, based on parameters such as geometry, boundary conditions, Center, Inc. (c) A novel near-field solar TPV system consisting of a concentrator, an absorber, an emitter, a filter, and a PV cell that can efficiently convert a portion of the solar energy into electrical energy [78]. Reprinted from [78], © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.…”

“…The conventional structural design method iteratively optimizes the required parameters by solving Maxwell's system of equations and full-field electromagnetic properties, based on parameters such as geometry, boundary conditions, Center, Inc. (c) A novel near-field solar TPV system consisting of a concentrator, an absorber, an emitter, a filter, and a PV cell that can efficiently convert a portion of the solar energy into electrical energy [78]. Reprinted from [78], © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (d) A fuel-driven NFTPV system comprising a combustion chamber, a furnace, a regenerator, a transmitter, a selectivity filter, and a PV cell [79].…”

Micron-sized liquid nitrogen-cooled indium antimonide photovoltaic cell for near-field thermophotovoltaics

“…Operation at 300 K of an InSb cell in an NF-TPV converter was modeled in several articles [5,11,14,18,20,24,26,32,33,44], but is quite unlikely in practice. Since the intrinsic concentration of charges in InSb is huge at room temperature (n i = 2 10 16 cm −3 ) [54] and contributes importantly to the dark current [55], conventional InSb p-n junction diodes are unable to deliver power substantially.…”

“…It specifies the architecture of the cell and conditions for it to be fabricated and operational. In particular, it is clearly established that assuming that the InSb cell will operate at 300 K [5,11,14,18,20,24,26,32,33,44] is not practicable. Instead the cell must be cooled down, typically by liquid nitrogen at around 77 K. Because of this cooling constraint, the cell described in the present article is meant to be for a laboratory experiment, not for a practical device.…”

Near-field radiation assisted smart skin for spacecraft thermal control

“…Thermal radiation heat flux at nanoscale distance (near-field) can exceed far-field radiation by several orders of magnitude due to photon tunneling, as demonstrated by numerous studies, both through theoretical analysis and experimental measurement [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. The significant enhancement of heat exchange in the near-field regime are promising to enlarge the variation range of heat flux when being modulated.…”