High-Temperature Refractory Metasurfaces for Solar Thermophotovoltaic Energy Harvesting

Chang, Chun-Chieh; Kort-Kamp, Wilton J.  M.; Nogan, John; Luk, Ting S.; Azad, Abul K.; Taylor, Antoinette J.; Dalvit, Diego A.  R.; Sykora, Milan; Chen, Hou-Tong

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03322

Title: High-Temperature Refractory Metasurfaces for Solar Thermophotovoltaic Energy Harvesting

Journal Article · Mon Nov 05 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03322· OSTI ID:1483543

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^[1]; Nogan, John ^[2]; Luk, Ting S. ^[2]; Azad, Abul K. ^[1]; Taylor, Antoinette J. ^[1]; Dalvit, Diego A. R. ^[1];

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies

Solar energy promises a viable solution to meet the ever-increasing power demand by providing a clean, renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels. For solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV), high-temperature absorbers and emitters with strong spectral selectivity are imperative to efficiently couple solar radiation into photovoltaic cells. We demonstrate refractory metasurfaces for STPV with tailored absorptance and emittance characterized by in situ high-temperature measurements, featuring thermal stability up to at least 1200 °C. Our tungsten-based metasurface absorbers have close-to-unity absorption from visible to near-infrared and strongly suppressed emission at longer wavelengths, while our metasurface emitters provide wavelength-selective emission spectrally matched to the band-edge of InGaAsSb photovoltaic cells. The projected overall STPV efficiency is as high as 18% when a fully integrated absorber/emitter metasurface structure is employed, which is comparable to the efficiencies of the best currently available commercial single-junction PV cells and can be further improved to potentially exceed those in mainstream photovoltaic technologies. Finally, our work opens a path forward for high-performance STPV systems based on refractory metasurface structures.

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Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 1483543

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-27846

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 12; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 100 works

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14 SOLAR ENERGY
high temperature
metasurfaces
refractory metamaterials
solar absorbers
solar thermophotovoltaics
thermal emitters

Title: High-Temperature Refractory Metasurfaces for Solar Thermophotovoltaic Energy Harvesting

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