Radiant thermal conversion in 0.53 eV GaInAsSb thermophotovoltaic diode

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBased on the developed analytical absorption model for 0.53 eV GaInAsSb alloy and the suggested material parameters, evaluating active layer controlled thermal conversion has been systematically done for both p-on-n and n-on-p configuration in its normal and inverted construction. A universal, spectruminsensitive optimal doping, N a(d) ¼ 3 Â 10 17 cm À3 , is observed in diode light-doped layer for all concerned configurations. By improving the doping in the light-doped layer, thickness compensation between emitter and base has been observed for normal structures and, for each considered structure, suboptimal structures can be employed by consuming less material to achieve comparable output as that for optimal one. Comparing to GaSb diode, 2e3 fold efficiency enhancement can be expected for low-temperature spectrum illumination, making the concerned device an efficient candidate for low-temperature TPV applications.

A Review on Thermophotovoltaic Cell and Its Applications in Energy Conversion: Issues and Recommendations

“…Furthermore, as illustrated in Figure 3, InGaAs (0.74 eV) and GaSb TPV cells recorded the highest cell efficiencies, which demonstrates the maturity of these structures. Record TPV cell efficiencies for various materials Ge [196], GaSb [3,131,134], InAs [204], InGaAs [52,103,159,163,185,186], InAsSb [205], InGaSb [200], InGaAsSb [63,198,199] and cascade InAs/GaSb/AlSb [201].…”

Detailed balance evaluation of tandem thermophotovoltaic devices residing on 6.1Å Sb-based alloys

“…As can be seen from Fig. 1, once the lower-E g GaInAsSb alloys are used, the cutoff wavelength λ m can be extended from 1.72 μm for GaSb to 2.48 μm for 0.5 eV GaInAsSb, improving further the available conversion efficiency [23]. Following this scheme, if the GaSb lattice-matched InAs 0.91 Sb 0.09 alloy (E g ¼0.286 eV) is used, λ m can be further enlarged to 4.4 μm, for which the majority of the spectrum is utilizable.…”

Low bandgap GaInAsSb thermophotovoltaic cells on GaAs substrate with advanced metamorphic buffer layer

“…In addition, a number of commercial designs for the GaSb based TPV power generators have been patented [16,17], making it the most mature TPV technology to date. However, simulation work indicated that for lower temperature 1000-1800 K thermal emitters, GaInAsSb TPVs can achieve much higher power conversion efficiencies than the GaSb TPVs, mainly due to the narrower bandgap of GaInAsSb enabling the cells to absorb more emitted photons [18,19], although a more realistic consideration by Tang et. al.…”