Energy conversion using diode-like structures

Author

Kucherov, Yan ; Hagelstein, Peter ; Sevastyanenko, Victor

Author_Institution

ENECO Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

25-29 Aug. 2002

Firstpage

431

Lastpage

434

Abstract

An experimental study of diode structures with the basic configuration ohmic/n*/n/intrinsic/ohmic shows a significant enhancement of heat to electricity conversion performance compared to the initial thermoelectric material (n). Direct electrical and thermal measurements indicate a conversion efficiency that is as high as 40% of the ideal Carnot cycle limit.

Keywords

diodes; electric current measurement; heat transfer; temperature measurement; thermal conductivity measurement; thermoelectric conversion; thermoelectric devices; voltage measurement; current injection mechanism; current measurement; diode-like structures; electrical measurements; energy conversion; heat flow measurement; heat to electricity conversion enhancement; ideal Carnot cycle limit; ohmic/n*/n/intrinsic/ohmic structure; temperature measurement; thermal conductivity measurement; thermal measurements; thermoelectric material; voltage measurement; Cities and towns; Electron emission; Energy conversion; Ohmic contacts; Resistance heating; Semiconductor diodes; Semiconductor materials; Temperature; Thermoelectricity; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Thermoelectrics, 2002. Proceedings ICT '02. Twenty-First International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7683-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICT.2002.1190353

Filename

1190353