Low radiation temperature thermal photovoltaic cells

In order to improve thermal photovoltaic (TPV) cell efficiency for low radiation temperature applications, the limit efficiency of TPV cells is calculated using the detailed balance approach for different TPV configurations, including TPV cells with a single band, one and multiple numbers of intermediate levels. Furthermore, the improvement of cell efficiency by using filtering emitters is discussed. The numerical results show that the limit efficiency at low radiation temperatures can be largely improved by introducing intermediate levels. The optimum material bandgap for achieving maximum limit efficiency for each configuration is obtained. The figure of merit is considered to give guidance for TPV material selection. In the end, quantum dot interband–intersubband and quantum cascade intersubband TPV cells are proposed as possible structures to improve TPV efficiency.

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