Energy conversion system
AssigneeTechnion Research & Development Foundation Limited
InventorsCarmel Rotschild, Assaf Manor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of emitting photons at a desired wavelength, including: providing a material having a first region of high absorption of radiation at a first set of wavelength of radiation, contiguous with a second region of low absorption of radiation at a shorter set of wavelengths, and a third region of high emission at a further shorter set of wavelengths; applying energy to the material at the first region, such that most of an effective black body radiation of said material at a temperature of the material would fall within the second region and be configured to transfer energy to said third region and not overlap with the first region; and emitting energy from the material at the third region, powered by said applying energy.
Claims31
A method for using an energy conversion apparatus to convert incoming radiation to electrical energy comprising:
- accepting incoming radiation from a radiation source external to an energy conversion apparatus;
- heating a photoluminescent material to a temperature T, where T >(Eg2-Eg1)/3Kb where Eg2 is a band-gap energy of a photovoltaic material, Eg1 is a band-gap energy of said photoluminescent material, and Kb is the Boltzmann constant;
- using insulation to maintain said temperature of said photoluminescent material;
- using said photoluminescent material to absorb a first photon from the incoming radiation;
- the absorbing the first photon and the heating causing said photoluminescent material to emit a second photon at a shorter wavelength than said first photon;
- and
- placing a photovoltaic cell comprising said photovoltaic material to absorb said second photon and generate electricity.
Apparatus for converting incoming radiation to electrical energy, comprising:
- a photoluminescent material for:
- absorbing heat and absorbing a first photon from incoming radiation;
- combining energy of said first photon with energy of said heat;
- and
- emitting a second photon at a shorter wavelength than said first photon;
- a photovoltaic cell comprising photovoltaic material for absorbing said second photon and generating electricity;
- and
- insulation placed between said photoluminescent material and said photovoltaic cell for maintaining temperature of said photoluminescent material,
- wherein:
- said apparatus is configured to expose said photoluminescent material to the incoming radiation at wavelengths corresponding to energies greater than a band-gap of said photovoltaic material, and
- said photoluminescent material is selected to have a luminescence peak emission at a wavelength which matches absorption of said photovoltaic material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.