Performance analysis of near-field tandem thermophotovoltaic systems based on radiative absorption distribution


Li B., Zhang B., Song J., Hu R., ERTÜRK H., Luo Z., ...Daha Fazla

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS IN HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER, cilt.139, 2022 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

Özet

Fluctuational electrodynamics and minority carrier diffusion equations are applied to evaluate the electric power output of a near-field tandem thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system with a bulk tungsten emitter (at 1500 K) and InGaSb/InAs tandem cells (at 300 K). We give evidence of the superiority of the tandem TPV system over the single-junction TPV system in the near-field regime because a tandem structure can harvest useful photons in a wider spectral range. It is also found that in comparison with the system with a bulk tungsten emitter, the practically achievable indium-tin-oxide (ITO) emitter and multilayer emitter could enhance the electricity output by a factor of 1.7 and 2.9 as a result of the supported surface plasmon resonances and hyperbolic modes, respectively. The conversion efficiency of the ITO emitter is 6% higher due to the suppression of the surface recombination loss, but the efficiency of the multilayer emitter is even 15% lower because of the heavy bulk recombination loss. These results highlight the possibilities to enhance the performance of the near-field tandem TPV systems via optimizing the radiative absorption distribution in the tandem cells, which is paramount important for the design and improvement of near-field tandem TPV systems.