High efficiency converters for thermophotovoltaic applications

Author

Fatemi, Navid S. ; Hoffman, Richard W. ; Lowe, Roland A. ; Jenkins, Phillip P. ; Garverick, Linda M. ; Wilt, David M. ; Scheiman, David

Author_Institution

Essential Res. Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1996

fDate

11-16 Aug 1996

Firstpage

2238

Abstract

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) converters were developed and tested at the heat source operating temperature of 1700 K. Rare-earth-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) and lutetium yttrium aluminum garnet (Lu, YAG) selective emitters, as well as a blackbody emitter, were coupled to InGaAs/InP photovoltaic (PV) cells and bandpass/infrared (IR) reflector filters. YAG-based selective emitters were doped with Ho, Tm, and Er. PV cells had bandgaps of 0.51, 0.57, and 0.69 eV. Converter energy conversion efficiencies approaching 30%, as well as electrical output power densities near 2 W/cm² were demonstrated. The overall performance of the filtered blackbody-based converter was found to be superior to the selective emitter YAG-based converters. The details of the measurements performed on the above converters and their individual components are presented

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; band-pass filters; blackbody radiation; gallium arsenide; garnets; indium compounds; lutetium compounds; optical filters; photovoltaic cells; solar cells; yttrium compounds; 0.51 to 0.69 eV; 1700 K; 30 percent; InGaAs-InP; InGaAs/InP photovoltaic cells; Lu, YAG; LuYAG:Tm; LuYAl5O12:Tm; YAG:Er; YAG:Ho; YAl5O12:Er; YAl5O12:Ho; bandpass/infrared reflector filters; blackbody emitter; electrical output power densities; energy conversion efficiencies; filtered blackbody-based converter; heat source operating temperature; high efficiency converters; lutetium yttrium aluminum garnet; rare-earth-doped yttrium aluminum garnet; selective emitter YAG-based converters; selective emitters; thermophotovoltaic applications; Aluminum; Garnets; Indium gallium arsenide; Indium phosphide; Infrared heating; Photovoltaic systems; Solar power generation; Temperature; Testing; Yttrium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1996. IECEC 96., Proceedings of the 31st Intersociety

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

1089-3547

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3547-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1996.561165

Filename

561165