Design of Light-Emitting Diodes and Photovoltaic Cells for Electroluminescent Refrigeration

Electroluminescent refrigeration is the intrinsic self-cooling effect that accompanies light emission from a light-emitting diode (LED). As LEDs and photovoltaic cells become more ideal, electroluminescence potentially becomes a viable alternative to existing solid-state cooling technologies. Here, we propose and model a device structure for the LED and photovoltaic cell that attains the requisite high external luminescence efficiency η <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ext</sub> for efficient electroluminescent refrigeration. We find that continued improvements in material quality, leading to a lower value for the low-voltage saturation current density J <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">02</sub> , will be critical in enabling this application.