Collimated thermal radiation transfer via half Maxwell's fish-eye lens for thermophotovoltaics

Chung, Haejun; Zhou, Zhiguang; Bermel, Peter

doi:10.1063/1.4983679

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

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4983679· OSTI ID:1466218

^[1]; Zhou, Zhiguang ^[2]; ^[2]

Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Birck Nanotechnology Center; Purdue University
Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Birck Nanotechnology Center

Thermophotovoltaics (TPV) convert heat into electricity by capturing thermal radiation with a photovoltaic (PV) cell, ideally at efficiencies of 50% or more. However, excess heating of the PV cell from close proximity to the emitter substantially reduces the system efficiency. In this paper, we theoretically develop and numerically demonstrate an approach to fundamentally improving TPV systems that allow for a much greater separation of an emitter and a receiver. Thus, we solve the excess heating dilemma, required for achieving theoretically high efficiencies. It consists of a spherically graded index lens known as Maxwell's Fish-Eye (MFE) structure, capable of collimating hemispherical emission into a much narrower range of angles, close to the normal direction. To fully characterize the power radiation profile of the MFE, we perform finite-difference time-domain simulations for a quarter MFE and then map it onto a Gaussian beam approximation. The modeled beam properties are subsequently used to study a half MFE. In an optimized half MFE design, 90% of all thermal photons reach a receiver at a distance of 100 λ; by comparison, only 15.6% of a blackbody emitter reach a receiver in the same geometry. It is also shown that the emission achieved by a half MFE can lead to a photon recycling rate above 95% for below bandgap photons at an emitter-receiver separation of 100 λ. Finally, by applying a half MFE, the absolute TPV efficiency can be improved from 5.74% to 37.15%, which represents a significant step forward in realizing high-efficiency TPV systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF) (United States); USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004946

OSTI ID:: 1466218

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1361901

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 110; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Nanophotonic engineering of far-field thermal emitters Baranov, Denis G.; Xiao, Yuzhe; Nechepurenko, Igor A. Nature Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0363-y	journal	May 2019
A comparatively experimental study on the temperature-dependent performance of thermophotovoltaic cells Zhang, Chao; Liao, Zhenghai; Tang, Liangliang Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5088791	journal	May 2019

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