Review of Near-eld Radiation for Thermophotovoltaics

Majid al-Dosari 12/14/2011

Thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) are solid state devices that convert thermally generated radiation into electrical current. Any TPV device consists of a thermal emitter and a photovoltaic cell separated by a gap. TPVs were conceived in the 1950s but suered from very low eciency. The advent of low band-gap photovoltaics in the 1990s renewed interest in TPVs in hope of increasing their eciency. In the 2000s, near-eld radiation eects have been explored to further increase eciency and power output. Much of the research on near-eld eects has been focused on surface phonon polaritons since they can be excited thermally and can transfer energy in a narrow spectral band. The radiation transfer between (bulk) surfaces, thin lms, photonic crystals, and metamaterials have been analyzed. The research seems to be headed towards analyzing arbitrary geometries and more realistic modeling. 1

Introduction
Thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) are solid state devices that convert thermally generated radiation to heat. All TPV devices have a heated emitter and a photovoltaic cell to recieve the radiation and convert the radiation to electrical current. Conceptualized in the 1950s, thermophotovoltaic development was slow and suered from very low eciency until the 1990s with the emergence of low-bandgap photovoltaics [21]. This allowed the characteristic wavelength of blackbody radiation to be within that of the band gap energy corresponding to temperatures from about 1000 K to 1500 K (.5 to .7 eV) thereby increasing eciency and power output. In 2001, DiMatteo [5] was rst to exploit near-eld eects in a TPV device although near-eld eects had been known prior to 2001. This was a break from research eorts that focus on tuning far-eld emission through complicated optics, use of exotic materials, and patterning of surfaces. Near-eld eects are due to the wave nature of electromagnetic radiation that manifest at distances around the wavelength of the radiation. Maxwells equations predict an exponentially decaying electric eld at surfaces. So, the proximity of the emitter and receiver allow for the coupling of evanescent waves thereby enhancing the heat transfer over that predicted by Plancks law. The evanescent waves appear from total internal reection or surface polaritons. Surface plasmon plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are the hybrid mode of collective oscillations of free electrons and an electromagnetic eld ap-

pearing mainly in metals. Surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs) are the hybrid mode of collective oscillations of lattice vibrations and an electromagnetic eld appearing mainly in polar materials. Research eorts focus on SPhPs since they can be excited thermally in the infrared, while SPPs appear generally in the ultraviolet. Also, interference eects can arise from reections within the gap which are sensitive to the separation distance. So, understanding near-eld eects is crucial to optimizing near-eld thermophotovoltaic devices. Eorts to understand near-eld radiation are the focus of the following literature review.

Literature Review
Near-eld radiation study is a nascent eld with most progress made only in the previous decade. The following literature review attempts to highlight the progress of understanding near-eld radiation as it pertains to thermophotovoltaics. Except where mentioned, all the studies here are theoretical and are exhibited roughly chronologically. Parallel plates are the general geometric conguration although a TPV device may be cylindrical. Rytov [24] rst described thermally-generated radiation in terms of uctuational electrodynamics. A random current is added to Amperes law to represent thermally agitated charges. Greens function is found to solve Maxwells equations particular to the geometry of the problem. The Greens

function may be interpreted as a transfer function that relates the contribution of as each current source contributes to the electric eld. The average strength of emission from electromagnetic sources is related to its temperature through the uctuation-dissipation theorem. Except for Ref. [23], all theoretical work shown relies on the work of Rytov. Mulet [18] used uctuational electrodynamics to study the radiative heat transfer between two surfaces that support surface modes: SiC and glass. The radiative heat transfer is enhanced by several orders of magnitude when the surfaces support resonant surface waves. Mulet is often cited for showing that the transfer is nearly monochromatic which is advantageous for thermophotovoltaics. It is also shown that the density of photonic states increases as inverse distance cubed from the surface. The procedure laid out is used subsequent studies. Similarly, Narayanaswamy [19] analyzed heat transfer between media that support surface plasmon polaritons: BN, SiC, and BC. They also show that even when one side was a photovoltaic, the transfer was still enhanced (although less). Fu [12] analyzed the eect of doping silicon on near-eld radiation. A fairly comprehensive model for the complex permittivity of silicon was used taking into consideration eects of temperature and dopant concentration on electron-lattice scattering and photon absorption, and the properties of holes (in addition to electrons). The increased ux was observed at lower frequencies where black body exchange becomes insignicant. 4

Laroche [17] provided a quantitative model of a TPV device in the neareld. The power and eciency of a (broadband) tungsten and a ctitious quasimonochromatic source matched to a GaSb cell were compared. The power enhancement was by a factor of 25 and 35 respectively. The eciency was 27% and 35% respectively representing an enhancement as well due to the concentration of frequencies around the bandgap. However, the enhancement is not strictly monotonic with decreasing distance. Furthermore, although respectable, the near-eld eciency for the quasimonochromatic source was lower than expected because the radiative transfer was broadened by the presence of the GaSb cell in the near-eld. Biehs [4] showed that in thin metal lms, the radiative intensity is maximized for a certain lm thicknesses due to Fabry-Perot-like reections inside the lm. Francoeur [9] studied the emission from a 10 nm thick SiC layer on a dielectric transmitting to bulk SiC. The radiative ux was 3.3 times larger than that of a bulk emitter due to a splitting of the resonant frequency into symmetric and anti-symmetric modes thereby increasing the channels available for heat transfer. Hu [15] provides one of few experimental verications of near-eld radiation enhancement. The heat exchanged between two glass plates separated by a micron-sized gap showed reasonable agreement with theory. Before that, Hanamura [14] reported near-eld electrical enhancement in a TPV device with gaps in the micron range using a GaSb photocell. 5

Park [22] calculated the performance of a TPV system rigorously by considering the thermal radiation absorption in dierent regions of a In.18 Ga.82 Sb photovoltaic. Stronger absorption of thermal radiation near the surface is calculated as the gap decreases decreasing device eciency to around 20% (in contrast to assuming 100% quantum eciency as in Ref. [17]). The component of the wavevector parallel to the plates at which maximum heat transfer occurs changes with separation distance which changes the penetration depth. This suggests an optimal separation distance between the emitter and the PV cell. Furthermore, a back-reector is suggested to recycle unused photons back to the emitter. Ben-Abdallah [3] calculated the heat transfer between isolated thin lms supporting SPhPs. Fu [13] showed that enhancement by adding thin lms of SiC or SiO2 on a substrate does not apply when the receiver is a metal. The near-eld enhancement between metals relies on TE-polarization while SPhP relies on TM-polarization. Francoeur [11] provides a comprehensive and general procedure for calculating near-eld thermal radiation in layered media. It is shown that a SiC lm emitter of about 1 mm gives the same spectral distribution as a bulk emitter. In a following paper [10], more explanation for the radiative transfer in thin lms is provided by analyzing the local density of photonic states (LDoS) within the gap between the thin lms. Multiple SPhP coupling was observed which explains enhanced radiation transfer. However, it 6

was observed that the LDoS at the surface of the emitter is dominated by SPhPs of large wavevectors parallel to the surface the are not aected by the receiving medium. There is also a note on the limit of the macroscopic electrodynamics given the nanometric scale of the lms and gaps. Basu [1] improved on the dielectric function used by Fu [12] by using ionization and mobility models better suited for heavily doped silicon. The lateral shift in the direction of energy transfer was calculated in order nd a plate size that is eectively innite laterally. Further elaboration on energy transfer direction is given in Ref. [2]. Francoeur [8] ogranizes near-eld heat transfer between thin lms into dimensionless (lm thickeness divided by gap width) regimes. Each regime has a dierent inverse gap width dependence. Furthermore, Francoeur [25] modeled a tungsten and In.18 Ga.82 Sb TPV system rigorously (in a way similar to Park [22]) but evaluated the eect of higher temperature on the photocell. It was found that the the power output and the conversion eciency of the system are respectively 5.83 105 Wm 2 and 24.8% at 300 K, whereas these values drop to 8.09 104 Wm
2

and 3.2% at 500 K. A ~105 Wm

convective cooling coecient

is required at the photocell in order to keep it at room temperature. The heating comes from the broadband nature emission of tungsten. The point of the paper is to comment on the feasibility of implementing such cooling on a device. Very recent research eorts are exploring near-eld eects in metama7

terials. Joulain [16] was rst to consider near-eld heat transfer between metamaterials. It was found that the magnetic response of the materials give additional channels for energy transfer. Zheng [26] added that the enhancement may not hold for if one side is dierent. Francoeur [7] also found enhanced transfer in metameterials consisting of a pottasium bromide host with SiC spherical inclusions. It was found that SP from TM-polarizations are not aected by the size of the inclusions while SP from TE polarization require at least a one micron radius to be excited. Nefedov [20] suggested that by adding a metamaterial in the gap, enhanced transfer can occur in relatively larger gaps. The metamaterial converts evanescent waves into propagating waves. The paper by Rodriguez [23] models near eld heat transfer directly between photonic crystals by introducing a random current in nite-dierence time-domain simulation. They nd a trade-o between spectral selectivity and near-eld enhancement. Also, they found that the heat transfer can be enhanced in certain symmetric congurations. An attempt has been made to exhibit the literature exhaustively but only 20 to 30 papers have been produced in the last decade that concern near-eld radiation for TPVs. Many of the papers are authored by G. Chen, M. Pinar Menguc, Z. Zhang, and their students. Perhaps the eld is best introduced in Francours PhD thesis [6]. There is a progression of sophistication of analyzed systems starting with bulk materials, then on to thin-lms, and more recently photonic crystals and metamaterials. 8

Research Direction
The analysis techniques used in all papers (except for Ref. [23]) are mathematically involved while only applicable to simple planar geometries. Furthermore, this technique requires the specication of temperature of the receiver to determine the heat ux. Ideally the calculation should only involve input heat ux or the temperature of the emitter as an input to the problem. So it is expected that there will be modeling techniques that address these problems. Also, the engineering problem of optimizing a TPV device will be addressed.

References
[1] S. Basu, B. J. Lee, and Z. M. Zhang. Near-Field Radiation Calculated With an Improved Dielectric Function Model for Doped Silicon. Journal of Heat Transfer, 132(2):023302, 2010. [2] S. Basu, L.P. Wang, and Z.M. Zhang. Direct calculation of energy streamlines in near-eld thermal radiation. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 112(7):11491155, May 2011. [3] Philippe Ben-Abdallah, Karl Joulain, Jeremie Drevillon, and Gilberto Domingues. Near-eld heat transfer mediated by surface wave hybridization between two lms. Journal of Applied Physics, 106(4):044306, 2009.

[4] S.-a. Biehs, D. Reddig, and M. Holthaus. Thermal radiation and neareld energy density of thin metallic lms. The European Physical Journal B, 55(3):237251, February 2007. [5] R. S. DiMatteo, P. Grei, S. L. Finberg, K. a. Young-Waithe, H. K. H. Choy, M. M. Masaki, and C. G. Fonstad. Enhanced photogenera-

tion of carriers in a semiconductor via coupling across a nonisothermal nanoscale vacuum gap. Applied Physics Letters, 79(12):1894, 2001. [6] Mathieu Francoeur. Near-eld radiative transfer : thermal radiation , generation and optical characterization. PhD thesis, University of Kentucky, 2010. [7] Mathieu Francoeur, Soumyadipta Basu, and Spencer J Petersen. Electric and magnetic surface polariton mediated near-eld radiative heat transfer between metamaterials made of silicon carbide particles. Optics express, 19(20):1877488, September 2011. [8] Mathieu Francoeur, M. Meng, and Rodolphe Vaillon. Coexistence of multiple regimes for near-eld thermal radiation between two layers supporting surface phonon polaritons in the infrared. Physical Review B, 84(7):19, August 2011. [9] Mathieu Francoeur, M. Pinar Meng, and Rodolphe Vaillon. Neareld radiative heat transfer enhancement via surface phonon polaritons coupling in thin lms. Applied Physics Letters, 93(4):043109, 2008. 10

[10] Mathieu Francoeur, M. Pinar Meng, and Rodolphe Vaillon. Local density of electromagnetic states within a nanometric gap formed between two thin lms supporting surface phonon polaritons. Journal of Applied Physics, 107(3):034313, 2010. [11] Mathieu Francoeur, M. Pinar Meng, and Rodolphe Vaillon. Solution of near-eld thermal radiation in one-dimensional layered media using dyadic Greens functions and the scattering matrix method. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 110(18):20022018, December 2009. [12] C Fu and Z Zhang. Nanoscale radiation heat transfer for silicon at dierent doping levels. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 49(9-10):17031718, May 2006. [13] C.J. Fu and W.C. Tan. Near-eld radiative heat transfer between two plane surfaces with one having a dielectric coating. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 110(12):10271036, August 2009. [14] Katsunori Hanamura and Kazuhiko Mori. Nano-gap TPV Generation of Electricity through Evanescent Wave in Near-eld Above Emitter Surface. In AIP Conference Proceedings, volume 890, pages 291296. Aip, 2007.

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[15] Lu Hu, Arvind Narayanaswamy, Xiaoyuan Chen, and Gang Chen. Near-eld thermal radiation between two closely spaced glass plates exceeding Plancks blackbody radiation law. Applied Physics Letters, 92(13):133106, 2008. [16] Karl Joulain and Jrmie Drevillon. Noncontact heat transfer between two metamaterials. Physical Review B, 81(16):17, April 2010. [17] M. Laroche, R. Carminati, and J.-J. Greet. Near-eld thermophotovoltaic energy conversion. Journal of Applied Physics, 100(6):063704, 2006. [18] J.P. Mulet, K. Joulain, R. Carminati, and J.J. Greet. Enhanced radiative heat transfer at nanometric distances. Microscale thermophysical engineering, 6(3):209222, 2002. [19] Arvind Narayanaswamy and Gang Chen. Surface modes for near eld thermophotovoltaics. Applied Physics Letters, 82(20):3544, 2003. [20] I Nefedov. Giant radiation heat transfer through the micron gaps. Arxiv preprint arXiv:1103.0407, pages 14, 2011. [21] Robert E Nelson. A brief history of thermophotovoltaic development. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 18(5):S141S143, May 2003. [22] K Park, S Basu, W King, and Z Zhang. Performance analysis of

near-eld thermophotovoltaic devices considering absorption distribu12

tion.

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109(2):305316, January 2008. [23] Alejandro W Rodriguez, Ognjen Ilic, Peter Bermel, Ivan Celanovic, John D Joannopoulos, Marin Soljai, and Steven G Johnson. Frequency-Selective Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Photonic Crystal Slabs: A Computational Approach for Arbitrary Geometries and Materials., September 2011. [24] SM Rytov. Theory of Electric Fluctuations and Thermal Radiation (Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Bedford, Mass., 1959). [25] Nanoscale-gap Thermophotovoltaic. Thermal Impacts on the Performance of Nanoscale-Gap Thermophotovoltaic Power Generators. Energy, 26(2):686698, 2011. [26] ZhiHeng Zheng and YiMin Xuan. Near-eld radiative heat transfer between general materials and metamaterials. Chinese Science Bulletin, 56(22):23122319, July 2011.

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