Graphene-based autonomous pyroelectric system for near-field energy conversion

Abstract

In the close vicinity of a hot solid, at distances smaller than the thermal wavelength, a strong electromagnetic energy density exists because of the presence of evanescent field. Here we explore the possibility to harvest this energy using graphene-based pyroelectric conversion devices made with an active layer encapsulated between two graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) deposited on the source and on the cold sink. By tuning the bias voltage applied to the gates of these transistors, the thermal state and the spontaneous polarization of the active layer can be controlled at kHz frequencies. We demonstrate that the power density generated by these conversion systems can reach 1300 W/m^2 using pyroelectric Ericsson cycles, a value which surpasses the current production capacity of near-field thermophotovoltaic conversion devices by more than five orders of magnitude with low grade heat sources (T<500 K) and small temperature differences (DT~100 K).

References in corpus (11)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Plasmonics in graphene at infra-red frequencies
• Optical properties of graphene
• The optical conductivity of graphene in the visible region of the spectrum
• Giant electrocaloric effect in the thin film relaxor ferroelectric 0.9 PbMg_(1/3)Nb_(2/3)O_3 - 0.1 PbTiO_3 near room temperature
• Near-field radiative heat transfer between macroscopic planar surfaces
• Graphene-based photovoltaic cells for near-field thermal energy conversion
• Many-body radiative heat transfer theory
• Near-field radiative heat transfer between nanostructures in the deep sub-wavelength regime
• Integrated near-field thermo-photovoltaics for on-demand heat recycling
• Radiative heat transfer and nonequilibrium Casimir-Lifshitz force in many-body systems with planar geometry

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Long-range super-Planckian heat transfer between nanoemitters in a resonant cavity
• Role of Nottingham effect in the heat transfer in extreme near-field regime
• Radiative Corbino effect in nonreciprocal many-body systems
• Deep sub-wavelength scale focusing of heat flux radiated by magneto-optical nanoemitters in the presence of an external magnetic-field
• High Resolution Measurement of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer enabled by Nanomechanical Resonators
• Near-field focusing and amplification of tip-substrate radiative heat transfer