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The conventional notion for achieving high efficiency in thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) is to use a monochromatic emission at a photon energy corresponding to the band gap of the cell. Here, we prove theoretically that such a notion is only…
We propose a mid-infrared device based on thermocouple optical antennas for light sensing and energy harvesting applications. We numerically demonstrate that antennas are able to generate low-power dc signals by beneficing of the…
Mechanisms to use nanoparticles to separate sunlight into photovoltaic useful range and thermally useful range to increase the efficiency of solar cells and to dissipate heat radiatively are discussed based upon lessons we learnt from…
We present a comprehensive analysis of a dual, micro-gap thermionic-thermoelectric hybrid energy converter by developing a detailed theoretical model of the system. The Space-charge and near-field effects in thermionic conversion and the…
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems. Compared to cylindrical batteries, prismatic cells are the primary choice because of their advantage for dense packing. However, thermal runaway and…
Efficient storage of solar thermal energy is still one of the major bottlenecks in realizing dispatchable solar thermal systems. Present work is a significant step in this direction, wherein, we propose, thermochromism assisted photon…
Significant progress has been made in the field of thermophotovoltaics, with efficiency recently rising to over 40% due to improvements in cell design and material quality, higher emitter temperatures, and better spectral management.…
We study nonlinear transport effects on the maximum efficiency and power for both inelastic and elastic thermoelectric generators. The former refers to phonon-assisted hopping in double quantum-dots, while the latter is represented by…
Conventional photocells suffer a fundamental efficiency threshold imposed by the principle of detailed balance, reflecting the fact that good absorbers must necessarily also be fast emitters. This limitation can be overcome by `parking' the…
We study the dynamics of photo-induced charge carriers in realistic models of LaVO3 and YTiO3 polar heterostructures. It is shown that two types of impact ionization processes contribute to the carrier multiplication in these strongly…
Photosynthetic complexes improve the transfer of excitation energy from peripheral antennas to reaction centers in several ways. In particular, a downward energy funnel can direct excitons in the right direction, while coherent excitonic…
We propose an efficient plasmonic structure consisting of metal strips and thin-film silicon for solar energy absorption. We numerically demonstrate the absorption enhancement in symmetrical structure based on the mode coupling between the…
Organic solar cells have the potential to be low-cost and efficient solar energy converters, with a promising energy balance. They are made from carbon-based semiconductors, which exhibit favourable light absorption and charge generation…
Spintronics, which aims at exploiting the spin degree of freedom of carriers inside electronic devices, has a huge potential for quantum computation and dissipationless interconnects. Ideally, spin currents in spintronic devices should be…
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…
Identifying the behavior of photoexcited carriers is one method for empirically boosting their transfer efficiencies in doped double quantum dots (DQDs) photocells. The photoexcited carriers transfer qualities were assessed in this study by…
Practical device architectures are proposed here for the implementation of three-terminal heterojunction bipolar transistor solar cells (3T-HBTSCs). These photovoltaic devices, which have a potential efficiency similar to that of…
Understanding the carrier excitation and transport processes at the single-charge level plays a key role in quantum-dot-based solar cells and photodetectors. Here, we report on Coulomb-induced giant photocurrent enhancement of positive…
We monitor the dynamics of hot carriers in InSe by means of two photons photoelectron spectroscopy (2PPE). The electrons excited by photons of 3.12 eV experience a manifold relaxation. First, they thermalize to the electronic states…
Manipulating the flow of energy in nanoscale and molecular photonic devices is of both fundamental interest and central importance for applications in light harvesting optoelectronics. Under erratic solar irradiance conditions, unregulated…