The design and numerical analysis of tandem thermophotovoltaic cells
摘要
In this paper,numerical analysis of GaSb(E g= 0.72 eV)/Ga0.84In0.16As0.14Sb0.86(E g= 0.53 eV) tandem thermophotovoltaic(TPV) cells is carried out by using Silvaco/Atlas software.In the tandem cells,a GaSb p–n homojunction is used for the top cell and a GaInAsSb p–n homojunction for the bottom cell.A heavily doped GaSb tunnel junction connects the two sub-cells together.The simulations are carried out at a radiator temperature of 2000 K and a cell temperature of 300 K.The radiation photons are injected from the top of the tandem cells.Key properties of the single- and dual-junction TPV cells,including I–V characteristic,maximum output power(P max),open-circuit voltage(V oc),short-circuit current(I sc),etc.are presented.The effects of the sub-cell thickness and carrier concentration on the key properties of tandem cells are investigated.A comparison of the dual-TPV cells with GaSb and GaInAsSb single junction cells shows that the P max of tandem cells is almost twice as great as that of the single-junction cells.