To date, ThermoPhotoVoltaic (TPV) technology has been governed by Planck's Law. To increase the photonic flux from the emitter to the receiver in a TPV system the temperature must be increased. Higher temperatures lead to materials challenges and higher parasitic system level thermal losses. In addition they make it difficult for TPV to compete in many waste heat conversion applications where the available waste heat is at temperatures less than those required for TPV. Planck indicated that his law applies only if the dimensions of the system are large compared to the wavelengths of the radiation. The idea that the electromagnetic energy transfer in a ThermoPhotoVoltaic (TPV) system can be increased by 5 times or more beyond Planck's Law by placing the emitter in close proximity to the photovoltaic receiver has been proposed and studied theoretically, and has been referred to as Micron-gap TPV (MTPV). In this papa we discuss the theory, the technology, and the experimental results that obtain when the distance between the emitter and receiver surfaces is reduced to sub-micron dimensions. The dramatic demonstration of this effect is the initial step in the development of a new class of energy conversion devices.
展开▼
