Evaluation of thermal radiation dependent performance of GaSb thermophotovoltaic cell based on an analytical absorption coefficient model

Applying the model dielectric function method, we have expressed the absorption coefficient of GaSb analytically at room temperature relating to the contribution of various critical points of its electronic band structure. The calculated absorption spectrum shows good agreement with the reported experimental data obtained by spectral ellipsometry on nominally undoped sample. Based on this analytical absorption spectrum, we have qualitatively evaluated the response of active absorbing layer structure and its photoelectric conversion properties of GaSb thermophotovoltaic device on the perturbation of external thermal radiation induced by the varying radiator temperature or emissivity. Our calculation has demonstrated that desirable thickness to achieve the maximum conversion efficiency should be decreased with the increment of radiator temperature and the performance degradation brought by any structure deviation from its optimal one would be stronger meanwhile. For the popular radiator temperature, no more than 1500 K in a real solar thermophotovoltaic system, and typical doping profile in GaSb cell, a reasonable absorbing layer structure parameter should be controlled within 100-300 nm for the emitter while 3000-5000 nm for the base.

Evaluating 0.53 eVGaInAsSbthermophotovoltaic diode based on an analytical absorption model

Radiant heat conversion performance dominated by the active layer of Ga0.84In0.16As0.14Sb0.86 diode has been systematically investigated based on an analytic absorption spectrum, which is suggested here by numerically fitting the limited experimental data. For the concerned diode configuration, our calculation demonstrates that the optimal base doping is 3-4 x 10(17) cm(-3), which is less sensitive to the variation of the external radiation spectrum. Given the scarcity of the alloy elements, an economical device configuration of the 0.2-0.6 mu m emitter and the 4-6 mu m base would be particularly acceptable because the corresponding conversion efficiency cannot exhibit discouraging degradation in comparison to the one for the optimal structure, the thickness of which may be up to 10 mu m. More importantly, the method we suggested here to calculate alloy absorption can be easily transferred to other composition, thus bringing great convenience for design or optimization of the optoelectronic device formed by these alloys.