A comprehensive study of thermal effects in novel laser photovoltaic converters for high power applications

The power that high-power laser transmission technology can deliver is currently limited by series resistance losses and the heat generated within the photovoltaic receiver, both of which degrade performance. Several strategies have been proposed to overcome series resistance, yet the thermal aspect remains underexplored, with most studies focusing on performance assessment through temperature control. In this work, we evaluate the temperature in a recently proposed state-of-the-art 4H-SiC photovoltaic receiver using a Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) methodology that incorporates all relevant heat sources and phenomena. All temperature-dependent models are calibrated against experimental data. Several laser power density values and heat sink scenarios are considered. For ultra-high laser power densities (100–500 W/cm 2 ), two contact resistance values are also examined, as series resistance losses play a major role in performance at these power levels. The results show that for low-to-medium laser power densities (1–10 W/cm 2 ), 4H-SiC devices can achieve conversion efficiencies exceeding 70% even with conventional thermal management solutions, with heat sink performance causing only a 0.3% and 2.3% efficiency degradation at 1 and 10 W/cm 2 , respectively. At 100 W/cm 2 , the device achieves a 75.1% efficiency with h=10 5 W/m 2 ·K and ρ c =10 -5 Ω/cm 2 . At 500 W/cm 2 , an efficiency of 70.8% is achieved under optimal thermal and contact conditions, while increasing contact resistivity by one order of magnitude results in a 10.4% efficiency degradation, highlighting the importance of thermal management and low contact resistivity at ultra-high power densities. These results also enable a comprehensive thermal management analysis of photovoltaic receivers.