Bifacial thermophotovoltaics: Design and modeling of c-Ge devices
Thermophotovoltaic devices are among the most efficient technologies to convert heat into electricity by means of IR photons emitted from a hot body. Recently, bifacial thermophotovoltaic devices which receive photons on both surfaces have been proposed with potential advantages of higher power dens...
| Autores: | , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/431763 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/431763 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2025.113680 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Thermophotovoltaic devices TPV Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Energia solar tèrmica |
| Sumario: | Thermophotovoltaic devices are among the most efficient technologies to convert heat into electricity by means of IR photons emitted from a hot body. Recently, bifacial thermophotovoltaic devices which receive photons on both surfaces have been proposed with potential advantages of higher power density and easier photon recycling. The latter is based on the device transparency to out-of-band photons (Eph < Eg) that can go through it reducing thermal losses on the opposite thermal emitter. In this work, we report on Silvaco ATLAS 3D simulations of bifacial TPV devices based on p-type c-Ge absorbers exploring two substrate resistivities (1.2 and 0.13 O cm). We study the effect of the distance between metal fingers on both surfaces as a critical parameter leading to maximum electrical power densities for ~100 µm. Interestingly, ohmic losses are relaxed by the increase in substrate conductivity due to photogenerated carriers. Bifaciality factor is close to one due to the highly symmetrical design of the device. Finally, we experimentally measure the absorption of out-of-band photons for both substrates. For 1.2 O cm substrates, the absorption is negligible up to ¿ = 10 µm permitting better photon recycling and higher efficiencies up to 21.8 %, compared to 0.13 O cm substrates that lead to 19.6 % despite its reduced ohmic losses. |
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