Events Calendar

EE-Electrophysics Seminar

Speaker: Igor Bargatin, Stanford University

Talk Title: Hard-boiled Electrons: Using Thermionic Emission for Solar Energy Generation

Abstract: An interdisciplinary team of Stanford researchers is currently building MEMS-based prototypes of a new types of heat-to-electricity and solar-to-electricity energy converters. The first type of the device converts very high-temperature heat (>1000 C) to electricity the evaporation of electrons from solid surfaces (thermionic effect).
The second type of the device simultaneously transforms light and heat energy provided by the sun into electricity and is based on the recently demonstrated effect of photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE). Both types of converters may be used to dramatically improve the efficiency of future solar thermal power plants. I will describe the principle of operation, the initial experiments, and the maximum theoretical efficiency of both types of these high-temperature MEMS devices.


Biography: Dr. Igor Bargatin is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Roger T. Howe in the Stanford EE department. A native of western Siberia, he received an undergraduate degree in theoretical physics from Moscow State University in 2000. Subsequently, Igor did his Ph.D. Studies with Prof. Michael L. Roukes at Caltech, where he became an experimentalist and studied sensor applications of high-frequency nanomechanical resonators, graduating with a Ph.D. in Physics and a minor in EE. In the summer of 2008, he was a visiting scientist at CEA/LETI in Grenoble, France, where he enjoyed the ambiance and developed new types of gas sensors.

Host: EE-Electrophysics

More Info: ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Marilyn Poplawski

Event Link: ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep