1. Ultraefficient thermophotovoltaic power conversion by band-edge spectral filtering
- Author
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Omair, Zunaid, Scranton, Gregg, Pazos-Outón, Luis M, Xiao, T Patrick, Steiner, Myles A, Ganapati, Vidya, Peterson, Per F, Holzrichter, John, Atwater, Harry, and Yablonovitch, Eli
- Subjects
Engineering ,Electronics ,Sensors and Digital Hardware ,Affordable and Clean Energy ,energy ,photovoltaics ,thermophotovoltaics ,TPV ,solar - Abstract
Thermophotovoltaic power conversion utilizes thermal radiation from a local heat source to generate electricity in a photovoltaic cell. It was shown in recent years that the addition of a highly reflective rear mirror to a solar cell maximizes the extraction of luminescence. This, in turn, boosts the voltage, enabling the creation of record-breaking solar efficiency. Now we report that the rear mirror can be used to create thermophotovoltaic systems with unprecedented high thermophotovoltaic efficiency. This mirror reflects low-energy infrared photons back into the heat source, recovering their energy. Therefore, the rear mirror serves a dual function; boosting the voltage and reusing infrared thermal photons. This allows the possibility of a practical >50% efficient thermophotovoltaic system. Based on this reflective rear mirror concept, we report a thermophotovoltaic efficiency of 29.1 ± 0.4% at an emitter temperature of 1,207 °C.
- Published
- 2019