Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells
Transparent conducting electrodes play a fundamental role in far-field PhotoVoltaic systems, but have never been thoroughly investigated for near-field applications. Here we show, in the context of near-field planar ultra-thin ThermoPhotoVoltaic cells using surface-plasmon-polariton thermal emitters...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5656648/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29070865 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13540-8 |
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author | Karalis, Aristeidis Joannopoulos, J. D. |
author_facet | Karalis, Aristeidis Joannopoulos, J. D. |
author_sort | Karalis, Aristeidis |
collection | PubMed |
description | Transparent conducting electrodes play a fundamental role in far-field PhotoVoltaic systems, but have never been thoroughly investigated for near-field applications. Here we show, in the context of near-field planar ultra-thin ThermoPhotoVoltaic cells using surface-plasmon-polariton thermal emitters, that the resonant nature of the nanophotonic system significantly alters the design criteria for the necessary conducting front electrode. The traditional ratio of optical-to-DC conductivities is alone not an adequate figure of merit, instead the desired impedance matching between the emitter and absorber modes along with their coupling to the free-carrier resonance of the front electrode are key for optimal device design and performance. Moreover, we demonstrate that conducting electrodes ‘opaque’ to incoming far-field radiation can, in fact, be used in the near field with decent performance by taking advantage of evanescent photon tunneling from the emitter to the absorber. Finally, we identify and compare appropriate tunable-by-doping materials for front electrodes in near-field ThermoPhotoVoltaics, specifically molybdenum-doped indium oxide, dysprosium-doped cadmium oxide, graphene and diffused semiconductors, but also for ‘opaque’ electrodes, tin-doped indium oxide and silver nano-films. Predicted estimated performances include output power density ~10 W/cm (2) with >45% efficiency at 2100 °K emitter temperature and 60 Ω electrode square resistance, thus increasing the promise for high-performance practical devices. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5656648 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-56566482017-10-31 Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells Karalis, Aristeidis Joannopoulos, J. D. Sci Rep Article Transparent conducting electrodes play a fundamental role in far-field PhotoVoltaic systems, but have never been thoroughly investigated for near-field applications. Here we show, in the context of near-field planar ultra-thin ThermoPhotoVoltaic cells using surface-plasmon-polariton thermal emitters, that the resonant nature of the nanophotonic system significantly alters the design criteria for the necessary conducting front electrode. The traditional ratio of optical-to-DC conductivities is alone not an adequate figure of merit, instead the desired impedance matching between the emitter and absorber modes along with their coupling to the free-carrier resonance of the front electrode are key for optimal device design and performance. Moreover, we demonstrate that conducting electrodes ‘opaque’ to incoming far-field radiation can, in fact, be used in the near field with decent performance by taking advantage of evanescent photon tunneling from the emitter to the absorber. Finally, we identify and compare appropriate tunable-by-doping materials for front electrodes in near-field ThermoPhotoVoltaics, specifically molybdenum-doped indium oxide, dysprosium-doped cadmium oxide, graphene and diffused semiconductors, but also for ‘opaque’ electrodes, tin-doped indium oxide and silver nano-films. Predicted estimated performances include output power density ~10 W/cm (2) with >45% efficiency at 2100 °K emitter temperature and 60 Ω electrode square resistance, thus increasing the promise for high-performance practical devices. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC5656648/ /pubmed/29070865 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13540-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Karalis, Aristeidis Joannopoulos, J. D. Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title | Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title_full | Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title_fullStr | Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title_full_unstemmed | Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title_short | Transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
title_sort | transparent and ‘opaque’ conducting electrodes for ultra-thin highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaic cells |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5656648/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29070865 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13540-8 |
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