College of Engineering (COE)

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Simulation of lattice mismatched indium gallium arsenide for thermophotovoltaic
(2020-02)
Shuangela Joy Sebastian
The principle of operation of a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell is the same as the one of standard photovoltaic (PV) devices. Photons are absorbed within the semiconductor and charge is generated. The excess positive and negative charges are separated at the p-n junction and then extracted from the cell as electric current. The main difference lies in the irradiance spectra used for the operation of TPV and PV devices. GaxIn1-xAs is an attractive choice for this application as its bandgap can be engineered to match the optimal range for TPV operation by adjusting the indium to gallium composition ratio, GaxIn1-xAs. In this thesis, InGaAs with a x composition of In0.68Ga0.38As and InAsP with a x composition of InAs0.34P0.66 were used with a bandgap of 0.6eV and 0.99eV respectively. The TPV cell is constructed and simulated in SILVACO software to obtain the performance parameters. This simulation is run under blackbody temperature of 1400K. A range of temperature was simulated to determine the best temperature. 1400K contributes the best result in terms of cell’s efficiency. The cell is then validated and optimized by varying the thickness and doping concentration of Emitter and Base region of the cell. The discussion for the optimized InGaAs TPV Cell is expressed and illustrated in the respective chapters.
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