Approaching zero thermal emissivity in thermophotovoltaic cells

Tobias Burger; Dejiu Fan; Sean McSherry; Byungjun Lee; Stephen R Forrest; Andrej Lenert

doi:10.1117/12.2598075

2 August 2021 Approaching zero thermal emissivity in thermophotovoltaic cells

Tobias Burger, Dejiu Fan, Sean McSherry, Byungjun Lee, Stephen R Forrest, Andrej Lenert

Proceedings Volume 11824, New Concepts in Solar and Thermal Radiation Conversion IV; 118240H (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2598075
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2021, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

A thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell is specially designed to minimize the absorption of radiation below its lowest bandgap. This ensures that the unused power is returned to the hot thermal emitter, which keeps it from being wasted. This approach is termed photon recycling because the energy is recycled until it is emitted at a high enough frequency to be efficiently converted. To facilitate this process, we recently created a cell architecture that has a thin air layer behind the light-absorbing semiconductor. The resulting air-bridge cell (ABC) reflects back almost all of the low-energy photons. In this talk, I will discuss the development of an InGaAs ABC that achieved a record-high peak conversion efficiency of 32% and our recent efforts to improve performance.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Tobias Burger, Dejiu Fan, Sean McSherry, Byungjun Lee, Stephen R Forrest, and Andrej Lenert "Approaching zero thermal emissivity in thermophotovoltaic cells", Proc. SPIE 11824, New Concepts in Solar and Thermal Radiation Conversion IV, 118240H (2 August 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2598075

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