Near-field thermophotovoltaic system design and calculation based on coupled-mode analysis

Bingnan Wang; Chungwei Lin; Koon Hoo Teo

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.7.044501

27 October 2017 Near-field thermophotovoltaic system design and calculation based on coupled-mode analysis

Bingnan Wang, Chungwei Lin, Koon Hoo Teo

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 7, Issue 4, 044501 (October 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.044501

Abstract

The coupling of resonant modes between two surfaces is important in near-field heat transfer and near-field thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. Recently, coupled-mode theory (CMT) has been developed for the analysis and optimal design of TPV systems. We use CMT to analyze the “emitter-vacuum-PV cell” configuration and quantitatively show how the emitter of a nanostructure can drastically improve the near-field TPV device performance. The key feature of the nanostructure is the additional geometry-induced resonant mode, whose energy is lower than the original surface plasmon polariton resonant frequency and much closer to the bandgap of the PV cell. Specifically, we show that, with a simple grating structure, the generated power density of a TPV cell is increased from 13 to 34 W/cm2 when the PV cell is fixed at 300 K and the emitter is at 1000 K. The increase is over 20 times higher when both planar and grating emitters are at a lower temperature of 500 K.

Citation Download Citation

Bingnan Wang, Chungwei Lin, and Koon Hoo Teo "Near-field thermophotovoltaic system design and calculation based on coupled-mode analysis," Journal of Photonics for Energy 7(4), 044501 (27 October 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.044501

Received: 29 July 2017; Accepted: 10 October 2017; Published: 27 October 2017

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available