| Abstrakt: |
Spectral control through the use of selective emitters is an important means of improving the efficiency of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. The availability of PV cells having a wide range of bandgap energies, along with the development of selective emitters having a range of emission band energies, gives the developer of TPV power systems a wide range of options. The rare earth aluminum garnet selective emitters developed in our laboratory offer a number of advantages when used in such systems [1-3]. In this paper, we present results of a detailed computational study of the effects of a number of design and operating parameters, including emitter film thickness, scattering within the film, and the temperature gradient across the film thickness, on the performance of three rare-earth aluminum garnet selective emitters. Specifically, we present emitter efficiency, net emittance, wavelength-dependent emittance, total output power, and the useful output power, for Er[sub 3]Al[sub 5]O[sub 12], Ho[sub 3]A1[sub 5] O[sub 12], and Tm[sub 3]A1[sub 5]O[sub 12] emitters, as functions of the above parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
