Electrical power generation from moderate-temperature radiative thermal sources

Moderate-temperature thermal sources often radiate waste heat as a by-product of mechanical work, chemical or nuclear reactions, or information processing. In a new report in Science, Paul S. Davids and a research team at the Sandia National Laboratory in the U.S., demonstrated the conversion of thermal radiation into electrical power. For this, they used a bipolar grating-coupled complimentary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) tunnel diode. Using a two-step photon-assisted tunneling charge pumping mec...