Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Walker Chan

Marin Soljacic

Ivan Celanovic

Peter Bermel

John Dimitris Joannopoulos

Klavs F Jensen

Gang Paul Chen

Steven G Johnson

Evelyn N Wang

Peter H Fisher

Daniel Kraemer

Andrej Lenert

Michael Ghebrebrhan

David M Bierman

Kenneth McEnaney

Ognjen Ilic

Adrian Y X Yeng

Young Suk Nam

Robert Pilawa-Podgurski

Christopher Marton

Mohammad Araghchini

Ahmet Musabeyoglu

Aviv Ruben Cukierman

Michael Robert Harradon

A solar thermal photovoltaic device, and method of forming same, includes a solar absorber and a spectrally selective emitter formed on either side of a thermally conductive substrate. The solar absorber is configured to absorb incident solar radiation. The solar absorber and the spectrally selective emitter are configured with an optimized emitter-to-absorber area ratio. The solar thermal photovoltaic device also includes a photovoltaic cell in thermal communication with the spectrally selective emitter. The spectrally selective emitter is configured to permit high emittance for energies above a bandgap of the photovoltaic cell and configured to permit low emittance for energies below the bandgap.

Spectrally-engineered solar thermal photovoltaic devices

Inventive systems and methods for the generation of energy using thermophotovoltaic cells are described. Also described are systems and methods for selectively emitting electromagnetic radiation from an emitter for use in thermophotovoltaic energy generation systems. In at least some of the inventive energy generation systems and methods, a voltage applied to the thermophotovoltaic cell (e.g., to enhance the power produced by the cell) can be adjusted to enhance system performance. Certain embodiments of the systems and methods described herein can be used to generate energy relatively efficiently.

Thermophotovoltaic energy generation

Incandescent lighting structure. The structure includes a thermal emitter that can, but does not have to, include a first photonic crystal on its surface to tailor thermal emission coupled to, in a high-view-factor geometry, a second photonic filter selected to reflect infrared radiation back to the emitter while passing visible light. This structure is highly efficient as compared to standard incandescent light bulbs.

High efficiency incandescent lighting

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Walker Chan