Study of the effect of 2D metallic photonic crystals on GaSb TPV diode performance

Dante F. DeMeo; Corey M. Shemelya; Abigail S. Licht; Emily S. Carlson; Nicole Pfiester; Lisa Fantini; Thomas E. Vandervelde

doi:10.1117/12.2290975

21 February 2018 Study of the effect of 2D metallic photonic crystals on GaSb TPV diode performance

Dante F. DeMeo, Corey M. Shemelya, Abigail S. Licht, Emily S. Carlson, Nicole Pfiester, Lisa Fantini, Thomas E. Vandervelde

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10541, Photonic and Phononic Properties of Engineered Nanostructures VIII; 1054113 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2290975
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2018, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) are a potential technology for waste-heat recovery applications and utilize IR sensitive photovoltaic diodes to convert long wavelength photons (>800nm) into electrical energy. The most common conversion regions utilize Gallium Antimonide (GaSb) as the standard semiconductor system for TPV diodes due to its high internal quantum efficiencies (close to 90%) for infrared radiation (~1700nm). However, parasitic losses prevent high conversion efficiencies from being achieved in the final device. One possible avenue to improve the conversion efficiency of these devices is to incorporate metallic photonic crystals (MPhCs) onto the front surface of the diode. In this work, we study the effect of MPhCs on GaSb TPV diodes. Simulations are presented which characterize a specific MPhC design for use with GaSb. E-field intensity vs. wavelength and depth are investigated as well as the effect of the thickness of the PhC on the interaction time between the e-field and semiconductor. It is shown that the thickness of MPhC has little effect on width of the enhancement band, and the depth the ideal p-i-n junction is between 0.6μm and 2.1μm. Additionally, simulated results demonstrate an increase of E-field/semiconductor interaction time of approximately 40% and 46% for a MPhC thickness of 350nm and 450nm respectively.

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Dante F. DeMeo, Corey M. Shemelya, Abigail S. Licht, Emily S. Carlson, Nicole Pfiester, Lisa Fantini, and Thomas E. Vandervelde "Study of the effect of 2D metallic photonic crystals on GaSb TPV diode performance", Proc. SPIE 10541, Photonic and Phononic Properties of Engineered Nanostructures VIII, 1054113 (21 February 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2290975

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