1. High-efficiency air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cells
- Author
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Roy-Layinde, Bosun, Lim, Jihun, Arneson, Claire, Forrest, Stephen R., and Lenert, Andrej
- Abstract
Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells generate electricity by converting infrared radiation emitted by a hot thermal source. Air-bridge TPVs have demonstrated enhanced power conversion efficiencies by recuperating a large amount of power carried by below-band-gap (out-of-band) photons. Here, we demonstrate single-junction InGaAs(P) air-bridge TPVs that exhibit up to 44% efficiency under 1,435°C blackbody illumination. The air-bridge design leads to near-unity reflectance (97%–99%) of out-of-band photons for ternary and quaternary TPVs whose band gaps range from 0.74 to 1.1 eV. These results suggest the applicability of the air-bridge cells to a range of semiconductor systems suitable for electricity generation from thermal sources found in both consumer and industrial applications, including thermal batteries.
- Published
- 2024
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