Editing Thermionic emission (section)

== Photon-enhanced thermionic emission ==

Photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) is a process developed by scientists at [[Stanford University]] that harnesses both the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity and increases the efficiency of solar power production by more than twice the current levels. The device developed for the process reaches peak efficiency above 200&nbsp;°C, while most silicon [[solar cell]]s become inert after reaching 100&nbsp;°C. Such devices work best in [[parabolic dish]] collectors, which reach temperatures up to 800&nbsp;°C. Although the team used a [[gallium nitride]] semiconductor in its proof-of-concept device, it claims that the use of [[gallium arsenide]] can increase the device's efficiency to 55–60 percent, nearly triple that of existing systems,<ref>{{ cite news | last = Bergeron | first = L. | title = New solar energy conversion process discovered by Stanford engineers could revamp solar power production | url = http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/new-solar-method-080210.html | work = Stanford Report | date = 2 August 2010 | access-date = 2010-08-04 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110411040334/http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/new-solar-method-080210.html | archive-date = 11 April 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last1 = Schwede | first1 = J. W. | year = 2010 | title = Photon-enhanced thermionic emission for solar concentrator systems | journal = [[Nature Materials]] | volume = 9 | issue = 9 | pages = 762–767 | bibcode = 2010NatMa...9..762S | doi = 10.1038/nmat2814 | pmid = 20676086 | display-authors = etal }}</ref> and 12–17 percent more than existing 43 percent multi-junction solar cells.<ref>{{ cite journal | last1 = Green | first1 = M. A. | last2 = Emery | first2 = K. | last3 = Hishikawa | first3 = Y. | last4 = Warta | first4 = W. | year = 2011 | title = Solar cell efficiency tables (version 37) | journal = [[Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications]] | volume = 19 | issue = 1 | pages = 84 | doi = 10.1002/pip.1088 | s2cid = 97915368 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{ cite journal | last1 = Ang | first1 = Yee Sin | last2 = Ang | first2 = L. K. | year = 2016 | title = Current-Temperature Scaling for a Schottky Interface with Nonparabolic Energy Dispersion | journal = [[Physical Review Applied]] | volume = 6 |issue = 3 | pages = 034013 | doi = 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.034013 | arxiv = 1609.00460 | bibcode = 2016PhRvP...6c4013A | s2cid = 119221695 }}</ref>