Design of efficient thermophotovoltaic system based on metamaterial narrow-band emitter for space power supply

Abstract

Photovoltaic technology has been widely used in spacecraft power supply, but its efficiency is difficult to be greatly improved by Shockley-Queisser limitation. The thermophotovoltaic technology can convert solar radiation energy or high-temperature combustion energy into radiation energy with reshaped spectrum for direct photovoltaic power generation. In this study, a meta-material structure composed of metal Ta and dielectric SiO2 is innovatively proposed for shaping narrowband radiation. The results show that the optimized spectral emittance peak of narrowband emitters reaches 0.9998. Narrowband emitter has advantages at high temperatures above 1000 K. The thermophotovoltaic efficiency of InGaAsSb cell and tandem Si/InGaAsSb cells can reach more than 41.67% and 46.26%, respectively. It is significantly higher than published thermophotovoltaic system with broadband emitter. This study demonstrates the notable advantages and potential of narrowband emitter for spectrum reshaping, which provides an important reference for future spacecraft power supply as well as space solar power generation.