Patent ID: 7985615

Claim:
A method of forming a nanotube/nanowire thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cell, the method comprising: forming a carbon nanotube/nanowire sheet, wherein the forming step comprises: synthesizing a layer of semi-conducting carbon nanotubes/nanowires on a substrate; depositing at least two metallic contacts on said layer of semi-conducting carbon nanotubes/nanowires; burning any metallic carbon nanotubes/nanowires from said layer of semi-conducting nanotubes/nanowires by applying a suitable voltage between that at least two metallic contacts; forming a p-n junction in said layer of semi-conducting nanotubes/nanowires by doping at least a portion of said layer of semi-conducting nanotubes/nanowires; making a plurality of carbon nanotube/nanowire sheets by repeating the forming step, wherein the making step comprises tuning an energy bandgap of each carbon nanotube/nanowire sheet of the plurality by, synthesizing single wall carbon nanotubes of different chirality in the layer of semi-conducting carbon nanotubes/nanowires on the substrate in each carbon nanotube/nanowire sheet of the plurality, and depositing different metal materials in the at least two metallic contacts in each carbon nanotube/nanowire sheet of the plurality; and stacking the plurality of carbon nanotube/nanowire sheets in series for broadband matching of a blackbody radiation spectrum.