Scalable Near-Field Thermophotovoltaic for Heat-to-Electricity recycling using detachable GeSn membranes

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Near-field thermophotovoltaics (NFTPV) promises the conversion of heat to electricity in portable devices with unprecedented efficiency. Such portable converters could recycle the enormous amounts of waste heat in the Canadian (e.g., oil production) and Quebec (e.g., aluminum) industrial sectors and in transport without additional greenhouse gas emissions. This technology is still in its infancy, with only a handful of experimental demonstrations that all achieved low conversion efficiencies or operation at temperatures that are still impractical for heat recycling. Despite such tremendous potential, experimental progress on NFTPV has been relatively slow, arguably from the lack of a truly multidisciplinary approach. For the application to be scalable, the cell should not comprise the highly toxic elements (e.g., Arsenide) that are typically found in group III-V low bandgap cells. Thinned-down germanium Tin PV cells appear as the most promising candidate for fulfilling these criteria. This project brings together unique complementary expertise from the University of Sherbrooke, McGill, and the University of Ottawa to develop a scalable NFTPV device using an innovative process for the detachment of functional GeSn thin film devices from thick Ge substrate.