Related papers: Hot-carrier thermophotovoltaic systems
Hot-carrier solar cells use the photon excess energy, that is, the energy exceeding the absorber bandgap, to do additional work. These devices have the potential to beat the upper limit for the photovoltaic power conversion efficiency set…
Thermophotovoltaic devices are energy-conversion systems generating an electric current from the thermal photons radiated by a hot body. In far field, the efficiency of these systems is limited by the thermodynamic Schockley-Queisser limit…
Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy conversion efficiency has recently surpassed 30%. The key behind such high efficiency is the inclusion of a highly efficient mirror in the rear of the TPV cell that turns back to the thermal emitter the…
Thermophotovoltaic systems in principle enable utilization of heat that is usually regarded as wasted energy. However, the wavelength selectivity of the thermal emitter required for high efficiencies is rather difficult to control with…
In conventional solar cells, photogenerated carriers lose part of their energy before they can be extracted to make electricity. The aim of hot-carrier solar cells is to extract the carriers before this energy loss, thereby turning more…
In the close vicinity of a hot body, at distances smaller than the thermal wavelength, a high electromagnetic energy density exists due to the presence of evanescent fields radiated by the partial charges in motion around its surface. This…
A standardized method for measuring thermophotovoltaic (TPV) efficiency has not been yet established, which makes the reported results difficult to compare. Besides, most of the TPV efficiencies reported to date have been obtained using…
Maximum efficiency of ideal single-junction photovoltaic (PV) cells is limited to 33% (for one sun illumination) by intrinsic losses such as band edge thermalization, radiative recombination, and inability to absorb below-bandgap photons.…
This paper shows a fundamental thermodynamic similarity between thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy converters which, at open circuit, can be represented as isochoric engines generating a finite chemical potential which appears as…
This work investigates an alternative to thermophotovoltaics for harvesting thermal and optical energy via photon coupling and thermionic energy conversion. In this device, a heat source is radiatively coupled to a thermionic electron…
Accurate modeling of charge transport and both thermal and luminescent radiation is crucial to the understanding and design of radiative thermal energy converters. Charge carrier dynamics in semiconductors are well-described by the…
Hot carrier solar cells allow potential efficiency close to the thermodynamical limit in ideal conditions. However, the feasability of such devices has not been clearly stated so far and only ideal cells were considered in previous studies.…
Thermophotovotaics convert thermal radiation from local heat sources to electricity. A new breakthrough in creating highly efficient thin-film solar cells can potentially enable thermophotovoltaic systems with unprecedented high efficiency.…
The key feature of a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) emitter is the enhancement of thermal emission corresponding to energies just above the bandgap of the absorbing photovoltaic cell and simultaneous suppression of thermal emission below the…
Transient photovoltage (TPV) is a technique frequently used to determine charge carrier lifetimes in thin-film solar cells such as organic, dye sensitized and perovskite solar cells. As this lifetime is often incident light intensity…
Near-field thermophotovoltaic systems functioning at 400$\sim$900~K based on graphene-hexagonal-boron-nitride heterostructures and thin-film InSb $p$-$n$ junctions are investigated theoretically. The performances of two near-field systems…
Solid-state heat-to-electrical power converters are thermodynamic engines that use fundamental particles, such as electrons or photons, as working fluids. Virtually all commercially available devices are thermoelectric generators, in which…
Among several solutions to exploit solar energy, thermophotovoltaics (TPV) have been popularized and have known great breakthroughs during the past two decades. Yet, existing systems still have low efficiencies since the wavelength range of…
A new thermodynamic limit for the open circuit voltage of solar cells that includes thermalization is obtained in terms of photon entropy. A simple graphical construction makes it possible to link this limit to the existing limits for…
We apply an intense infrared laser pulse in order to perturb the electronic and vibrational states in the three-dimensional charge density wave material 1$T$-VSe$_2$. Ultrafast snapshots of the light-induced hot carrier dynamics and…