Metamaterial emitter for thermophotovoltaics stable up to 1400°C

High temperature stable selective emitters can significantly increase efficiency and radiative power in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. However, optical properties of structured emitters reported so far degrade at temperatures approaching 1200 degrees C due to various degradation mechanisms. We have realized a 1D structured emitter based on a sputtered W-HfO2 layered metamaterial and demonstrated desired band edge spectral properties at 1400 degrees C. To the best of our knowledge the temperature of 1400 degrees C is the highest reported for a structured emitter, so far. The spatial confinement and absence of edges stabilizes the W-HfO2 multilayer system to temperatures unprecedented for other nanoscaled W-structures. Only when this confinement is broken W starts to show the well-known self-diffusion behavior transforming to spherical shaped W-islands. We further show that the oxidation of W by atmospheric oxygen could be prevented by reducing the vacuum pressure below 10(-5) mbar. When oxidation is mitigated we observe that the 20 nm spatially confined W films survive temperatures up to 1400 degrees C. The demonstrated thermal stability is limited by grain growth in HfO2, which leads to a rupture of the W-layers, thus, to a degradation of the multilayer system at 1450 degrees C.