Boosting thermophotovoltaic efficiency with GaInAsSb/GaSb heterojunction device

Abstract We demonstrate the enhanced thermophotovoltaic energy conversion with GaInAsSb/GaSb heterojunction cells. The case study for 0.53 eV n-GaInAsSb/P-GaSb cell indicates that, at the matched spectrum temperatures (1700 ~ 2100K), efficiency up to 7.5% ~ 8.1% and power density in the range of 3.55 ~ 6.95W/cm 2 can be expected for the illumination of unshaped blackbody spectrum. The net efficiency improvement can be up to 1.7% ~ 2.0% once 0.53 eV GaInAsSb p–n cell is taken as control cell; while for GaSb control cell, the effective reduction of matched spectrum temperature can be up to 300 ~ 400 K for heterojunction cell. These results have thus evidenced a new type of cell or strategy to boost thermophotovoltaic energy conversion.