Photon enhanced thermionic emission
Abstract
Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) is exploited to provide improved efficiency for radiant energy conversion. A hot (greater than 200.degree. C.) semiconductor cathode is illuminated such that it emits electrons. Because the cathode is hot, significantly more electrons are emitted than would be emitted from a room temperature (or colder) cathode under the same illumination conditions. As a result of this increased electron emission, the energy conversion efficiency can be significantly increased relative to a conventional photovoltaic device. In PETE, the cathode electrons can be (and typically are) thermalized with respect to the cathode. As a result, PETE does not rely on emission of non-thermalized electrons, and is significantly easier to implement than hot-carrier emission approaches.
- Inventors:
- Issue Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1160132
- Patent Number(s):
- 8853531
- Application Number:
- 12/589,122
- Assignee:
- The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Palo Alto, CA)
- Patent Classifications (CPCs):
-
H - ELECTRICITY H01 - BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS H01J - ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
H - ELECTRICITY H02 - GENERATION H02S - GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRA-RED RADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, e.g. USING PHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Patent
- Resource Relation:
- Patent File Date: 2009 Oct 16
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 42 ENGINEERING
Citation Formats
Schwede, Jared, Melosh, Nicholas, and Shen, Zhixun. Photon enhanced thermionic emission. United States: N. p., 2014.
Web.
Schwede, Jared, Melosh, Nicholas, & Shen, Zhixun. Photon enhanced thermionic emission. United States.
Schwede, Jared, Melosh, Nicholas, and Shen, Zhixun. Tue .
"Photon enhanced thermionic emission". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1160132.
@article{osti_1160132,
title = {Photon enhanced thermionic emission},
author = {Schwede, Jared and Melosh, Nicholas and Shen, Zhixun},
abstractNote = {Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) is exploited to provide improved efficiency for radiant energy conversion. A hot (greater than 200.degree. C.) semiconductor cathode is illuminated such that it emits electrons. Because the cathode is hot, significantly more electrons are emitted than would be emitted from a room temperature (or colder) cathode under the same illumination conditions. As a result of this increased electron emission, the energy conversion efficiency can be significantly increased relative to a conventional photovoltaic device. In PETE, the cathode electrons can be (and typically are) thermalized with respect to the cathode. As a result, PETE does not rely on emission of non-thermalized electrons, and is significantly easier to implement than hot-carrier emission approaches.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Tue Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}
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