The design and numerical analysis of tandem thermophotovoltaic cells

In this paper, numerical analysis of GaSb (Eg = 0.72 eV)/Ga0.84In0.16As0.14Sb0.86 (Eg = 0.53 eV) tandem thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells is carried out by using Silvaco/Atlas software. In the tandem cells, a GaSb p‐n homojunction is used for the top cell and a GaInAsSb p‐n homojunction for the bottom cell. A heavily doped GaSb tunnel junction connects the two sub-cells together. The simulations are carried out at a radiator temperature of 2000 K and a cell temperature of 300 K. The radiation photons are injected from the top of the tandem cells. Key properties of the single- and dual-junction TPV cells, including I‐V characteristic, maximum output power (Pmax), open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Isc), etc. are presented. The effects of the sub-cell thickness and carrier concentration on the key properties of tandem cells are investigated. A comparison of the dual-TPV cells with GaSb and GaInAsSb single junction cells shows that the Pmax of tandem cells is almost twice as great as that of the single-junction cells.