Numerical modeling and performance enhancement of micro combustor powered thermophotovoltaic systems using high contrast gratings

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems offer an efficient way to directly convert thermal energy into electricity using the radiation emitted from a high temperature source. Compared conventional photovoltaic (PV) systems, TPVs have additional elements such as filters tailor and shape radiated impinging on PV cell improve conversion efficiency. High contrast grating (HCG) structures are integrated within combustor walls which act selective filter. The filter plays major role by suppressing sub-band gap reflecting it back combustion Typically, amorphous silicon (a-Si) periodic gratings with quartz substrate material optimized for gallium antimonide (GaSb) cells. In this work, we carried out detailed Multiphysics simulations study performance of GaSb, Si InGaAsSb cells when operating in micro emitting non uniform source range 500–2000 K. Results show that proposed TPV system can power density 250 mW/cm2 GaSb cell. Further, significantly more photons be converted useful higher cut-off wavelength InGaAsSb. Therefore, 410 mW/cm2. This shows employing low bandgap > 20 times compared