skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Overcoming the black body limit in plasmonic and graphene near-field thermophotovoltaic systems

Journal Article · · Optics Express
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.00A366· OSTI ID:1386908
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Zagreb (Croatia)

Near-field thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems with carefully tailored emitter-PV properties show large promise for a new temperature range (600 – 1200K) solid state energy conversion, where conventional thermoelectric (TE) devices cannot operate due to high temperatures and far-field TPV schemes suffer from low efficiency and power density. We present a detailed theoretical study of several different implementations of thermal emitters using plasmonic materials and graphene. We find that optimal improvements over the black body limit are achieved for low bandgap semiconductors and properly matched plasmonic frequencies. For a pure plasmonic emitter, theoretically predicted generated power density of 14 $$\frac{W}{cm^2}$$ efficiency of 36% can be achieved at 600K (hot-side), for 0.17eV bandgap (InSb). Developing insightful approximations, we argue that large plasmonic losses can, contrary to intuition, be helpful in enhancing the overall near-field transfer. We discuss and quantify the properties of an optimal near-field photovoltaic (PV) diode. In addition, we study plasmons in graphene and show that doping can be used to tune the plasmonic dispersion relation to match the PV cell bangap. In case of graphene, theoretically predicted generated power density of 6(120)$$\frac{W}{cm^2}$$ efficiency of 35(40)% can be achieved at 600(1200)K, for 0.17eV bandgap. With the ability to operate in intermediate temperature range, as well as high efficiency and power density, near-field TPV systems have the potential to complement conventional TE and TPV solid state heat-to-electricity conversion devices.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577
OSTI ID:
1386908
Journal Information:
Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue S3; Related Information: S3TEC partners with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead); Boston College; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; ISSN 1094-4087
Publisher:
Optical Society of America (OSA)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 178 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (51)

Efficiency and power density potential of combustion-driven thermophotovoltaic systems using GaSb photovoltaic cells journal January 2001
Dynamical polarization of graphene at finite doping journal December 2006
Anomalous radiative transfer between closely-spaced bodies journal December 1969
Microscale radiation in thermophotovoltaic devices—A review journal January 2007
Heat transfer between graphene and amorphous SiO 2 journal October 2010
Thermal Impacts on the Performance of Nanoscale-Gap Thermophotovoltaic Power Generators journal June 2011
Performance analysis of near-field thermophotovoltaic devices considering absorption distribution journal January 2008
Noncontact heat transfer between two metamaterials journal April 2010
Absorber and emitter for solar thermo-photovoltaic systems to achieve efficiency exceeding the Shockley-Queisser limit journal January 2009
Very large radiative transfer over small distances from a black body for thermophotovoltaic applications journal January 2000
Radiative transfer over small distances from a heated metal journal January 2000
Surface modes for near field thermophotovoltaics journal May 2003
Searching for better plasmonic materials journal March 2010
Evaporated Sn‐doped In 2 O 3 films: Basic optical properties and applications to energy‐efficient windows journal December 1986
Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films journal October 2004
Surface electromagnetic waves thermally excited: Radiative heat transfer, coherence properties and Casimir forces revisited in the near field journal May 2005
Design and global optimization of high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic systems journal January 2010
Modeling and performance of microscale thermophotovoltaic energy conversion devices journal March 2002
New Green-function formalism for surface optics journal January 1987
Plasmonics in graphene at infrared frequencies journal December 2009
Dielectric function, screening, and plasmons in two-dimensional graphene journal May 2007
Optical Properties of n -Type Indium Arsenide in the Fundamental Absorption Edge Region journal September 1961
Calculation of the electronic and optical properties of indium tin oxide by density functional theory journal May 2004
Enhanced Radiative heat Transfer at Nanometric Distances journal July 2002
Highly Confined Hybrid Spoof Surface Plasmons in Ultrathin Metal-Dielectric Heterostructures journal October 2010
Thermal Noise in Dissipative Media journal March 1961
Proximity-enhanced thermal radiation journal October 2002
Optical properties of graphene journal October 2008
Theory of heat transfer by evanescent electromagnetic waves journal December 1994
Design and optimization of one-dimensional photonic crystals for thermophotovoltaic applications journal January 2004
Near-field thermophotovoltaic energy conversion journal September 2006
Surface Phonon Polaritons Mediated Energy Transfer between Nanoscale Gaps journal August 2009
Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit journal October 2001
Radiative heat transfer at the nanoscale journal August 2009
Review of near-field thermal radiation and its application to energy conversion journal October 2009
Radiative exchange of heat between nanostructures journal August 1999
Near-field radiative heat transfer between a sphere and a substrate journal September 2008
Mimicking Surface Plasmons with Structured Surfaces journal August 2004
Experimental Verification of Radiation of Plasma Oscillations in Thin Silver Films journal November 1960
Infrared Absorption and Valence Band in Indium Antimonide journal July 1960
Modeling and Performance of Microscale Thermophotovoltaic Energy Conversion Devices journal January 2002
Highly Confined Hybrid Spoof Surface Plasmons in Ultra-thin Metal/Dielectric Heterostructures
  • Mousavi, Hossein; Khanikaev, Alexander; Neuner III, Burton
  • Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference, CLEO:2011 - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications https://doi.org/10.1364/qels.2011.qtha5
conference January 2011
Surface Modes for Near Field Thermophotovoltaics text January 2003
Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer Between a Sphere and a Substrate text January 2008
Optical properties of graphene text January 2008
Plasmonics in graphene at infra-red frequencies text January 2009
Searching for Better Plasmonic Materials preprint January 2009
Highly Confined Hybrid Spoof Surface Plasmons in Ultra-thin Metal/Dielectric Heterostructures text January 2010
Near-field radiative heat transfer between closely spaced graphene and amorphous SiO$_2$ text January 2014
Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films text January 2004
Surface Electromagnetic Waves Thermally Excited: Radiative Heat Transfer, Coherence Properties and Casimir Forces Revisited in the Near Field text January 2005

Cited By (33)

Near-field radiative thermoelectric energy converters: a review journal December 2017
Radiative heat transfer exceeding the blackbody limit between macroscale planar surfaces separated by a nanosize vacuum gap journal September 2016
Near-field radiative heat transfer between parallel structures in the deep subwavelength regime journal March 2016
Observing of the super-Planckian near-field thermal radiation between graphene sheets journal October 2018
High-injection effects in near-field thermophotovoltaic devices journal November 2017
Thin-film ‘Thermal Well’ Emitters and Absorbers for High-Efficiency Thermophotovoltaics journal June 2015
‘Squeezing’ near-field thermal emission for ultra-efficient high-power thermophotovoltaic conversion journal July 2016
Dynamic tailoring of electromagnetic behaviors of graphene plasmonic oligomers by local chemical potential journal January 2018
Temporal coupled mode theory for thermal emission from a single thermal emitter supporting either a single mode or an orthogonal set of modes journal March 2013
Temporal coupled-mode theory model for resonant near-field thermophotovoltaics journal October 2015
Exergy in near-field electromagnetic heat transfer journal September 2017
High-performance near-field electroluminescent refrigeration device consisting of a GaAs light emitting diode and a Si photovoltaic cell journal October 2017
Near-field thermionic-thermophotovoltaic energy converters journal May 2019
Self-sustaining thermophotonic circuits journal May 2019
Effect of Evanescent Waves on the Dark Current of Thermophotovoltaic Cells journal October 2019
Thermal graphene metamaterials and epsilon-near-zero high temperature plasmonics journal March 2017
Enhancing Thermophotovoltaic Performance Using Graphene-BN- In Sb Near-Field Heterostructures journal October 2019
Using metallic photonic crystals as visible light sources journal November 2012
Surface-mode-assisted amplification of radiative heat transfer between nanoparticles journal April 2018
Adiabatic Thermal Radiation Pumps for Thermal Photonics journal October 2019
Performance Analysis of a Near-Field Thermophotovoltaic Device With a Metallodielectric Selective Emitter and Electrical Contacts for the Photovoltaic Cell journal February 2017
Near-field radiative transfer between two unequal sized spheres with large size disparities journal January 2014
Study of W/HfO 2 grating selective thermal emitters for thermophotovoltaic applications journal January 2018
Micron-sized liquid nitrogen-cooled indium antimonide photovoltaic cell for near-field thermophotovoltaics journal January 2019
Near-field radiative transfer between two unequal sized spheres with large size disparities text January 2014
Near-field thermal radiation transfer controlled by plasmons in graphene text January 2012
Thin-film 'Thermal Well' Emitters and Absorbers for High-Efficiency Thermophotovoltaics preprint January 2015
Graphene-based amplification and tuning of near-field radiative heat transfer between dissimilar polar materials text January 2017
Losses in plasmonics: from mitigating energy dissipation to embracing loss-enabled functionalities text January 2018
Surface-mode-assisted amplification of radiative heat transfer between nanoparticles text January 2018
Observing of the super-Planckian near-field thermal radiation between graphene sheets text January 2018
Enhancing thermophotovoltaic performance using graphene-BN-InSb near-field heterostructures text January 2019
Adiabatic Thermal Radiation Pumps for Thermal Photonics text January 2019

Similar Records

Conceptual Design of 500 watt portable thermophotovoltaic power supply using JP-8 fuel
Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1997 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:1386908

Collimated thermal radiation transfer via half Maxwell's fish-eye lens for thermophotovoltaics
Journal Article · Fri May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1386908

Quaternary InGaAsSb Thermophotovoltaic Diode Technology
Conference · Wed Jan 26 00:00:00 EST 2005 · OSTI ID:1386908

Related Subjects