Near-field radiative heat transfer enhancement by multilayers and gratings in the thermophotovoltaic system

The near-field effect can be used to improve the output power of the near-field thermophotovoltaic device (NTPV). The near-field radiative heat transfer in the near-field thermophotovoltaic device can be enhanced by the excitation of hyperbolic modes and the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons. In this study, we design a two-body near-field thermophotovoltaic system based on hyperbolic metamaterial. The multilayer structure on the emitter is composed of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) and hafnium dioxide (HfO2). The gratings are on the InAs photovoltaic cell. Fluctuational electrodynamics and rigorous coupled-wave method are employed to calculate radiative heat transfer. It is found that the NTPV system with multiple microstructures performs better than the NTPV system just with single micro-structures. This NTPV system performs better in a wider vacuum gap. The output power and efficiency are enhanced by the GZO-HfO2 surface plasmon polaritons in multilayer structure. The gratings can monitor the spectral heat flux to match the cell band gap to enhance the performance of the near-field thermophotovoltaic system. This investigation provides a novel approach for improving the output power of a two-body near-field thermophotovoltaic system.

Automated summary

The near-field effect is utilized to enhance the near-field radiative heat transfer in a near-field thermophotovoltaic system. In this study, a two-body near-field thermophotovoltaic system based on hyperbolic metamaterial is designed. The system with multiple microstructures performs better than the system with single microstructures. The output power and efficiency are enhanced by the GZO-HfO2 surface plasmon polaritons in the multilayer structure.