Performance analysis of Schottky-junction-based near-field thermophotovoltaic system

Abstract

Numerous studies have reported performance enhancement of a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system when an emitter is separated by nanoscale gaps from a TPV cell. Although a $p$-$n$-junction-based TPV cell has been widely used for the near-field TPV system, a Schottky-junction-based near-field TPV system has drawn attention recently with the advantage of the easy fabrication. However, existing studies mostly focused on the generated photocurrent only in the metal side due to the fact that required energy for the metal-side photocurrent (i.e., Schottky barrier height) is smaller than the bandgap energy. Here, we suggest the precise performance analysis model for the Schottky-junction-based near-field TPV system, including photocurrent generation on the semiconductor side by considering the transport of minority carriers within the semiconductor. It is found that most of the total photocurrent in the Schottky-junction-based near-field TPV system is generated in the semiconductor side. We also demonstrate that further enhancement in the photocurrent generation can be achieved by re-absorbing the usable photon energy in the metal with the help of a backside reflector. The present work will provide a design guideline for the Schottky-junction-based near-field TPV system taking into account three types of photocurrents.

arXiv comment17 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Observing of the super-Planckian near-field thermal radiation between graphene sheets
• Impacts of propagating, frustrated and surface modes on radiative, electrical and thermal losses in nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic power generators
• Graphene-on-silicon near-field thermophotovoltaic cell
• Comparison of hot-electron transmission in ferromagnetic Ni on epitaxial and polycrystalline Schottky interfaces

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