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High Temperature Material Processes (An International Quarterly of High-Technology Plasma Processes)

An International Journal

ISSN for PRINT: 1093-3611

Institutional price:	$604.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2007, Volume11

161 pages

DOI: 10.1615/HighTempMatProc.v11.i4

Issue price - $168.00

MODEL OF A PLASMA PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERTER WITH A THIN TRANSITION LAYER BETWEEN ALKALI VAPORS AND BUFFER GAS

N. A. Gorbunov
Physics Institute of St.-Petersburg State University, Ulianovskaya 1, 198904 St.-Petersburg, Russia

A. N. Kopitov
Physics Institute of St.-Petersburg State University, Ulianovskaya 1, 198904 St.-Petersburg, Russia

Gilles Flamant
Laboratoire Procédés Matériaux et Energie Solaire (CNRS-PROMES), 7 Rue du Four Solaire, Odeillo, 66120 Font-Romeu, France

ABSTRACT

Theoretical analysis was carried out of the operating regimes of a plasma photoelectric cell that can be designed on the basis of a heat pipe filled with a mixture of alkali vapors and the buffer gas. One-dimensional (1D) model of the photoelectric converter is based on the solution of ambipolar diffusion equation with effective boundary conditions. It has been shown that creation of a sharp boundary between alkali vapors and the buffer gas inside the heat pipe results in significant enhancement of the direct conversion efficiency of optical radiation to electrical current.