Uchicago Argonne, LLC

William Paterson University of New Jersey

Jonathan J Foley, Iv

Alex B Martinson

Stephen K Gray

Nari Jeon

Tailoring the emission spectra of a solar thermophotovoltaic emitter away from that of a blackbody, thereby minimizing transmission and thermalization loss in the energy receiver, is a viable approach to circumventing the Shockley-Queisser limit to single junction solar energy conversion. Embodiments allow for radically tuned selective thermal emission that leverages the interplay between two resonant phenomena in a simple planar structure&#x2014;absorption in weakly-absorbing thin films and reflection in multi-layer dielectric stacks. A virtual screening approach is employed based on Pareto optimality to identify a small number of promising structures for a selective thermal emitter from a search space of millions, several of which approach the ideal values of a step-function selective thermal emitter.

Growing community of inventors

Wayne, NJ, United States of America

Jonathan J Foley, Iv