2D Photonic-crystals for high spectral conversion efficiency in solar thermophotovoltaics

Author

Lenert, Andrej ; Rinnerbauer, Veronika ; Bierman, David M. ; Nam, Y. ; Celanovic, Ivan ; Soljacic, Marin ; Wang, E.N.

Author_Institution

Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

26-30 Jan. 2014

Firstpage

576

Lastpage

579

Abstract

We present a novel solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) device, which for the first time, incorporates a two-dimensional photonic-crystal (2D PhC) absorber-emitter to achieve spectral conversion efficiencies >10%. These results were achieved by tailoring the spectral properties of the absorber-emitter through surface nanostructuring of tantalum (Ta) and minimizing parasitic thermal losses through an innovative vacuum-enclosed experimental setup. By incorporating a sub-bandgap photon reflecting filter on the PV surface and optimizing the absorber-emitter ratio, we present how the demonstrated 2D Ta PhCs enable a realistic STPV configuration to exceed the Shockley-Queisser ultimate efficiency of a 0.55 eV cell.

Keywords

optimisation; photonic crystals; solar cells; solar spectra; tantalum; thermophotovoltaic cells; 2D PhC; 2D photonic crystals; STPV device; Shockley-Queisser ultimate efficiency; Ta; absorber emitter; electron volt energy 0.55 eV; high spectral conversion efficiency; parasitic thermal losses; solar thermophotovoltaics; subbandgap photon reflecting filter; surface nanostructuring; Cavity resonators; Optical filters; Photonic band gap; Photonics; Temperature distribution; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2014 IEEE 27th International Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2014.6765706

Filename

6765706