Related papers: Thermionic-enhanced near-field thermophotovoltaics
Nanophotonics has recently gained new momentum with the emergence of a novel class of nanophotonic systems consisting of resonant dielectric nanostructures integrated with single or few layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs).…
Photogalvanic solar cells, the original dye based solar cell, have yet to fulfill their promise as a low fabrication cost, scalable energy conversion system. The efficient performance of photogalvanic cells relies on high dye solubility and…
Unlike radiowave antennas, optical nanoantennas so far cannot be fed by electrical generators. Instead, they are driven by light or via optically active materials in their proximity. Here, we demonstrate direct electrical driving of an…
We introduce a new class of mesoscopic heat engines consisting of a tunnel junction coupled to a linear thermal bath. Work is produced by transporting electrons up against a voltage bias like in ordinary thermoelectrics but heat is…
Monolayers of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have long attracted interest for their intriguing optical and electronic properties. Recently TMDs in their quasi-bulk form have started to show considerable promise for…
Metal nanoparticles are excellent light absorbers. The absorption processes create highly excited electron-hole pairs and recently there has been interest in harnessing these hot charge carriers for photocatalysis and solar energy…
Phonon drag may be harnessed for thermoelectric generators and devices. Here, we demonstrate the geometric control of the phonon-drag contribution to the thermopower. In nanometer-thin electrically conducting $\beta$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ films…
We investigate the near-field heat transfer between a semi-infinite medium and a nanoparticle made of composite materials. We show that, in the effective medium approximation, the heat transfer can be greatly enhanced by considering…
Direct current (DC) converters play an essential role in electronic circuits. Conventional high-efficiency DC voltage converters, especially step-up type, rely on switch-mode operation, where energy is periodically stored within and…
Plasmon excitations in metallic nanostructures can decay directly into dynamic electron-hole pairs (EHPs), exploitable for photocurrent generation. This approach has extensively been employed to develop nanoplasmonic light-sensing devices…
In recent years, the study of heat to work conversion has been re-invigorated by nanotechnology. Steady-state devices do this conversion without any macroscopic moving parts, through steady-state flows of microscopic particles such as…
Light absorption and scattering of plasmonic metal nanoparticles can lead to non-equilibrium charge carriers, intense electromagnetic near-fields, and heat generation, with promising applications in a vast range of fields, from chemical and…
Silicon photonic devices fundamental to high-density wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) optical links and photonic switching networks, such as resonant modulators and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), are highly sensitive to…
Solar energy is clean and renewable but has a low flux density. The lack of a continuous and reliable power supply reduces their average daily output. Since the infrared part is not utilized to produce electricity, conventional photovoltaic…
An unusual photo-galvanic effect is predicted on the topological insulator surface when its semi-metallic electronic spectrum is modified by an adjacent ferromagnet. The effect is correlated with light absorption in a wide frequency range…
Heat is an inevitable outcome in energy consumption processes, as more than 65% of input energy is wasted as heat. If we can generate electricity from waste heat, it will help minimize the needs for fossil fuels in power plants and can…
A tomographic study of near-field radiative heat exchanges between a mesoscopic object and a substrate immersed in a thermal bath is carried out within the theoretical framework of fluctuational electrodynamics. By using the…
The strong light-matter interaction in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is promising for nanoscale optoelectronics with their direct band gap nature and the ultra-fast radiative decay of the strongly bound excitons these…
In this work, we propose an efficient quantum-enhanced solid-state photocell based on GaN quantum dots. We exploit the strong built-in electric field in GaN QDs and excitonic dipole-dipole coupling between adjacent QDs to break detailed…
Graphene thermionic electron emission across high-interface-barrier involves energetic electrons residing far away from the Dirac point where the Dirac cone approximation of the band structure breaks down. Here we construct a full-band…