Absorber and emitter for solar thermophotovoltaic systems to achieve efficiency exceeding the Shockley-Queisser limit

We present theoretical considerations as well as detailed numerical design of absorber and emitter for Solar Thermophotovoltaics (STPV) applications. The absorber, consisting of an array of tungsten pyramids, was designed to provide near-unity absorptivity over all solar wavelengths for a wide angular range, enabling it to absorb light effectively from solar sources regardless of concentration. The emitter, a tungsten slab with Si/SiO2 multilayer stack, provides a sharp emissivity peak at the solar cell band-gap while suppressing emission at lower frequencies. We show that, under a suitable light concentration condition, and with a reasonable area ratio between the emitter and absorber, a STPV system employing such absorber-emitter pair and a single-junction solar cell can attain efficiency that exceeds the Shockley-Queisser limit. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America