Detailed analysis of the impact of internal heat leaks on the working properties of cold-carrier energy-emissive harvesters

Abstract

We study the working properties of cold-carrier energy-emissive harvesters that have internal heat leaks. We obtain the expressions of their electronic current, open-circuit voltage, chemical potential, power and efficiency using both the Impact-Auger and the Particle-Balance models. For each model we consider two different situations: when CC-EEHs works at constant temperature and when they work receiving a constant input heat flux. We show that heat leaks change all the mentioned properties and that they must be considered in calculations on cold-carrier energy-emissive harvesters. We also discuss how these two working situations are different between them and how considering the losses leads to different results on each one of the two situations.