Thin-Film Architectures with High Spectral Selectivity for Thermophotovoltaic Cells

• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.8b00508
• Publication Date: 2018-06-27T16:36:55Z
• Authors: Tobias Burger; Dejiu Fan; Kyusang Lee; Stephen R. Forrest; Andrej Lenert
• Keywords: Thermophotovoltaic

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems are a promising technology for distributed conversion of high-temperature heat to electricity. To achieve high efficiency, the transport sub-bandgap radiation between thermal emitter and PV cell should be suppressed. This can achieved by recycling back using spectrally selective cell. However, conventional TPV cells exhibit limited reflectance. Here we demonstrate thin-film In0.53Ga0.47As-based structures with spectral selectivity, including record-high average reflectance (96%). Selectivity is enabled short optical paths through high-quality material fabricated epitaxial lift-off, high-reflectance surfaces, optimized interference. In addition, use parallel-plate model evaluate impact specific structural features on performance optimize architecture. We show that dielectric spacer InGaAs Au surface an important feature enables predicted efficiency above 50% (with power output 2.1 W/cm2), significantly higher than current devices. work provides guidelines design high-efficiency, low-cost generators.