Effect of Efficiency of a Thermophotovoltaic GaSb Solar Cell Subjected to 1D Photonic Crystal Filter and Double/Multi-Layer Anti-Reflective Coatings

Increasing the efficiency and electrical power density of thermophotovoltaic devices relies on recent advances in photovoltaic cell materials and technology. The study of the effect of optical properties and the impact on the performance of GaSb cell is presented in this work. However, in this type of system, the infrared radiation transformed into electricity corresponds to the GaSb cell spectrum. It can be done in several ways. The first means is that of an optical filter (Si/SiO₂). This structure is composed of ten periods. The second means are the double and multiple anti-reflection coatings. The temperature measured on the surface of the emitter was 1500 K in the operating condition for which wavelength is ranging from 800 to 1800 nm. The matrix transfer method enables the analysis of the optical properties behavior of each system in order to study the incidence variation. However, the highest incidence angle of for the anti-reflective coatings was limited to 30º. In addition, the electrical performances of the GaSb cell have been studied and compared. The current density for a cell without anti-reflective coating was 27.6 mA/cm², while for DLARC and MLARC coatings were 38.6 mA/cm² and 39.6 mA/cm² respectively. However, the optical filter itself generates a short-circuit current density of 42.6 mA/cm², significantly higher than the other three, which gives it an efficiency of 24.56%.