Related papers: Thermionic-enhanced near-field thermophotovoltaics
We present a systematic optimization of nighttime thermoelectric power generation system utilizing radiative cooling. We show that an electrical power density over 2 W/m2, two orders of magnitude higher than the previously reported…
It is shown that equations for electrical current in solid-state thermionic and thermoelectric devices converge for devices with a width equal to the mean free path of electrons, yielding a common expression for intensive electronic…
Photons typically do not contribute to thermal transport within a solid due to their low energy density and tendency to be quickly absorbed. We propose a practical material system - infrared plasmonic resonators embedded in a semiconductor…
Vertical heterostructures of van der Waals materials enable new pathways to tune charge and energy transport characteristics in nanoscale systems. We propose that graphene Schottky junctions can host a special kind of photoresponse which is…
Thermal fluctuations of charged particles, fluctuations akin to Brownian motion, can excite optical surface-states leading to the concept of the thermal near-field, which is a highly localized, and, therefore, evanescent optical density of…
Thermoelectricity is the direct conversion of temperature gradient to electric voltage, and vice-versa. There are several potential applications of thermoelectricity, ranging from clean noiseless cooling, to waste-power harvesting in…
We describe a strategy for conversion of optical power into DC electrical power using resonant absorption in plasmonic nanostructures. A thermodynamic analysis of the underlying mechanism motivates our description of the phenomenon, which…
We report the fabrication and measurement of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells with efficiencies of >40%, which is a record high TPV efficiency and the first experimental demonstration of the efficiency of high-bandgap tandem TPV cells. TPV…
Future generations of photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation must employ inexpensive, earth-abundant absorber materials in order to provide a large-scale source of clean energy. These materials tend to have poor electrical transport…
Thermoelectric devices are heat engines, which operate as generators or refrigerators using the conduction electrons as a working fluid. The thermoelectric heat-to-work conversion efficiency has always been typically quite low, but much…
Topological photonic systems, with their ability to host states protected against disorder and perturbation, allow us to do with photons what topological insulators do with electrons. Topological photonics can refer to electronic systems…
By converting waste heat into electricity through the thermoelectric power of solids without producing greenhouse gas emissions, thermoelectric generators could be an important part of the solution to today's energy challenge. There has…
A thermostat senses the temperature of a physical system and switches heating or cooling devices on or off, regulating the flow of heat to maintain the system's temperature near a desired setpoint. Taking advantage of recent advances in…
Frequency up-conversion of few low-energy photons into a single high-energy photon, greatly contributes to imaging, light sources, detection and other fields of research. However, it offers negligible efficiency when up-converting many…
We study theoretically the photoelectron emission in noble gases using plasmonic enhanced near-fields. We demonstrate that these fields have a great potential to generate high energy electrons by direct mid-infrared laser pulses of the…
Electrophoresis has been shown as a novel methodology to enhance heat conduction capabilities of nanocolloidal dispersions. A thoroughly designed experimental system has been envisaged to solely probe heat conduction across nanofluids by…
The importance of considering near-field effects on photon recycling and spontaneous emission in a thermophotovoltaic device is investigated. Fluctuational electrodynamics is used to calculate external luminescence from a photovoltaic cell…
The bottleneck in modern thermoelectric power generation and cooling is the low energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials. The detrimental effects of lattice phonons on performance can be mitigated, but achieving a high…
We propose a novel scheme of photon upconversion based on harnessing the energy of plasmonic hot carriers. Low-energy photons excite hot electrons and hot holes in a plasmonic nanoparticle, which are then injected into an adjacent…
Progress in integrated nanophotonics has enabled large-scale programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for general-purpose electronic-photonic systems on a chip. Relying on the weak, volatile thermo-optic or electro-optic effects,…