CVD diamond high-temperature cells for solar concentrating systems

High-temperature solar cells are possible with Photon-enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) devices, which represent a novel and very attractive concept for the exploitation of concentrated solar radiation characterized by promising high conversion efficiency. PETE converters rely on the concept that engineered semiconductor structures can provide a thermionic emission, sustained by the high temperatures induced by thermalization of low-energy photons, that is significantly boosted by hot electrons generated by photons with sufficient energy to produce charge couples.