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US 9,312,398 B2Granted
Energy storage device with large charge separation
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsTimothy P. Holme, Friedrich B. Prinz, Andrei Iancu
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Abstract
High density energy storage in semiconductor devices is provided. There are two main aspects of the present approach. The first aspect is to provide high density energy storage in semiconductor devices based on formation of a plasma in the semiconductor. The second aspect is to provide high density energy storage based on charge separation in a p-n junction.
Claims10
An energy storage system comprising:
- 1) a plasma-based energy storage device comprising:
- first and second conductive electrodes spaced apart;
- a first volume of active material disposed between the electrodes;
- and
- a first volume of barrier material disposed between the first volume of active material and the first electrode;
- and
- 2) a source configured to illuminate the plasma-based energy storage device with electromagnetic radiation having a photon energy greater than a band gap energy of the active material of the first active volume;
- wherein upon application of a voltage across the electrodes one or both of an electron plasma or hole plasma is formed in the first volume of active material;
- wherein the electron plasma and/or hole plasma independently have a density of charge carriers of greater than about 0.5 carrier per nm3 when the first volume of active material is subject to a field of 0.7 V/nm;
- and
- wherein the voltage applied across the electrodes to form the plasma in the first volume of active material produces an energy density of greater than about 1 Wh/L for the device.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.