title: Entropic and Near-Field Improvements of Thermoradiative Cells.
abstract: A p-n junction maintained at above ambient temperature can work as a heat engine, converting some of the supplied heat into electricity and rejecting entropy by interband emission. Such thermoradiative cells have potential to harvest low-grade heat into electricity. By analyzing the entropy content of different spectral components of thermal radiation, we identify an approach to increase the efficiency of thermoradiative cells via spectrally selecting long-wavelength photons for radiative exchange. Furthermore, we predict that the near-field photon extraction by coupling photons generated from interband electronic transition to phonon polariton modes on the surface of a heat sink can increase the conversion efficiency as well as the power generation density, providing more opportunities to efficiently utilize terrestrial emission for clean energy. An ideal InSb thermoradiative cell can achieve a maximum efficiency and power density up to 20.4% and 327 Wm-2, respectively, between a hot source at 500 K and a cold sink at 300 K. However, sub-bandgap and non-radiative losses will significantly degrade the cell performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Wei-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Bolin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Svetlana V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Boriskina
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen