Performances of far and near-field thermophotonic refrigeration devices from the detailed-balance approach
Thomas Châtelet, Julien Legendre, Olivier Merchiers, Pierre-Olivier Chapuis
公開日: 2025/4/7
Abstract
We study a near-field thermophotonic (NF-TPX) refrigerating device, consisting of a lightemitting diode and a photovoltaic cell in close proximity. Calculations are performed in the frame of the detailed-balance approach. We study how thermal radiation, separation distance and LED temperature can affect both cooling power and coefficient of performance. More specifically, we assess the impact of bandgap energy and external quantum efficiency for an artificial material on those cooling performances. For a particular device made of GaAs and/or AlGaAs we show that, in the near-field regime, the cooling power can be increased by one order of magnitude compared to far field. However, a 10% reduction of the external quantum efficiency can lead to a decrease of the cooling power by two orders of magnitude. Finally, we compare existing literature data on electroluminescent, TPX and thermoelectric cooling with our detailed balance prediction, which highlights design-rule requirements for NF-TPX cooling devices.