Analysis and optimization of In1-xGaxAsySb1-y thermophotovoltaic cells under low radiator temperatures

Type : Publication
Auteur(s) :  F. Bouzid, N. Maamri
Année :  2013
Domaine : Physique
Revue : Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences
Résumé en PDF :  (résumé en pdf)
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Mots clés :  Radioisotope, Emissivity, Recombination Velocity, Efficiency, Temperature

Résumé : 

In this paper, we investigated the heat to electricity conversion efficiency of In1-xGaxAsySb1-yradioisotope thermophotovoltaic (RTPV) converter with x=0.8 and y=0.18, taking account of the photons with energy below the cells bandgap using a comprehensive analytical process. This was done with a computer program designed for this reason, which allowed the computation of the cell performance under a variety of specified incident radiation spectra as well as a variety of material parameters. The results show that for an emissivity value of 0.78, a cell thickness of about 7µm with low front recombination velocity(700cm/s),a conversion efficiency greater than 29% can be obtained for radiator’s temperature of1300°k at ambient temperature. This efficiency will decrease as the cell temperature increase.