Diffusion-emission theory of photon enhanced thermionic emission solar energy harvesters

Solar energy conversion with photon-enhanced thermionic emission

Photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) converts sunlight to electricity with the combined photonic and thermal excitation of charge carriers in a semiconductor, leading to electron emission over a vacuum gap. Theoretical analyses predict conversion efficiency that can match, or even exceed, the efficiency of traditional solar thermal and photovoltaic converters. Several materials have been ...

Solid-state Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission for Solar Energy Conversion

Global climate imperatives require a worldwide shift away from greenhouse gasemitting activities such as fossil fuel combustion. Concentrated solar thermal installations are particularly appealing as they can store a fraction of their power in the form of heat to provide baseload power, yet current conversion efficiencies prevent them from reaching competitive market prices. One extremely promi...

Photon-enhanced thermionic emission for solar concentrator systems.

Solar-energy conversion usually takes one of two forms: the 'quantum' approach, which uses the large per-photon energy of solar radiation to excite electrons, as in photovoltaic cells, or the 'thermal' approach, which uses concentrated sunlight as a thermal-energy source to indirectly produce electricity using a heat engine. Here we present a new concept for solar electricity generation, photon...

Analysis of a photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) solar converter with a GaInP based cathode

Conversion of solar radiation to electricity with Photon-Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) uses both photonic and thermal excitation of charge carriers in a semiconductor. This device includes a semiconductor cathode (which can be composed of several semiconductor materials) illuminated and heated by concentrated sunlight, and a cooler anode, separated by a small vacuum gap. First theoretical...

Negative space charge effects in photon-enhanced thermionic emission solar converters