Related papers: Energy Conversion Using New Thermoelectric Generat…
The scanning transmission electron microscope, a workhorse instrument in materials characterization, is being transformed into an atomic-scale material manipulation platform. With an eye on the trajectory of recent developments and the…
New emerging disciplines such as Nanoionics and Iontronics are dealing with the exploitation of mesoscopic size effects in materials, which become visible (if not predominant) when downsizing the system to the nanoscale. Driven by the…
Recent studies have revealed magnetically controllable thermoelectric effects in superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) structures. A tunable cryogenic thermoelectric generator needs not only a high conversion factor between electricity and heat,…
Although electrostatic microgenerators (ESMGs) have promised for nearly two decades extensive applications in wireless, self-powered microscale devices and sensors for security, personal health systems, communication, infrastructure and…
We report that electricity can be generated from limitless thermal motion of ions by two dimensional (2D) surface of silicon wafer at room temperature. A typical silicon device, on which asymmetric electrodes with Au and Ag thin films were…
Improving the conversion efficiency of solar energy to electricity is most important to mankind. For single-junction photovoltaic solar-cells, the Shockley-Queisser thermodynamic efficiency limit is extensively due to the heat dissipation,…
Nano-scaled metallic or dielectric structures may provide various ways to trap light into thin-film solar cells for improving the conversion efficiency. In most schemes, the textured active layers are involved into light trapping structures…
We present state-of-the-art first-principle calculations of the electronic and optical properties of silicon allotropes with interesting characteristics for applications in thin-film solar cells. These new phases consist of distorted sp$^3$…
Recent progresses in ultra low power microelectronics propelled the development of several microsensors and particularly the self powered microsystems (SPMS). One of their limitations is their size and their autonomy due to short lifetime…
Organic semiconductors show complex phenomena due to their high energetic disorder. A striking example is the possibility of an increased effective temperature T_eff of the charge carrier distribution relative to the lattice temperature,…
We theoretically show that a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system enhanced by a wire metamaterial opens the door to a prospective microgap thermophotovoltaics which will combine high electric output with relatively low temperatures of the…
This work presents a microscale approach for simulating the dielectrophoresis (DEP) assembly of polarizable particles under an external electric field. The model is shown to capture interesting dynamical and topological features, such as…
Emerging technology based on artificial materials containing metallic structures has raised the prospect for unprecedented control of terahertz waves through components like filters, absorbers and polarizers. The functionality of these…
This article proposes a new energy harvesting concept that greatly enhances thermionic power generation with high e ciency by exploiting the near- field enhancement of thermal radiation. The proposed near-field enhanced thermionic energy…
Graphene has been used recently as a replacement for indium tin oxide (ITO) for the transparent electrode of an organic photovoltaic device. Due to its limited supply, ITO is considered as a limiting factor for the commercialization of…
The paper describes preliminary investigations of a new effect in conducting anisotropic liquids, which leads to thermoelectric conversion of energy. Nematic liquid crystals with semiconducting dopes are used. A thermoelectric figure of…
At the ultra-thin film limit, quantum confinement strongly improves thermoelectric figure of merit in materials such as Sb$_2$Te$_3$ and Bi$_2$Te$_3$. These high quality films have only been realized using well controlled techniques such as…
How to macroscopically control the flow of heat at will is up to now a challenge, which, however, is very important for human life since heat flow is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. Inspired by intelligent electronic components or…
The Seebeck effect describes the generation of an electric potential in a conducting solid exposed to a temperature gradient. Besides fundamental relevance in solid state physics, it serves as a key quantity to determine the performance of…
Microring resonators made from silicon are becoming a popular microscale device format for generating photon pairs at telecommunications wavelengths at room temperature. In compact devices with a footprint less than $5\times 10^{-4}$…