Controlling the directionality of emitted far-field thermal radiation is a fundamental challenge. Photonic strategies enable angular selectivity of thermal emission over narrow bandwidths, but thermal radiation is a broadband phenomenon. The ability to constrain emitted thermal radiation to fixed narrow angular ranges over broad bandwidths is an important, but lacking, capability. We introduce gradient epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials that enable broad-spectrum directional control of thermal emission. We demonstrate two emitters consisting of multiple oxides that exhibit high (>0.7, >0.6) directional emissivity (60° to 75°, 70° to 85°) in the p-polarization for a range of wavelengths (10.0 to 14.3 micrometers, 7.7 to 11.5 micrometers). This broadband directional emission enables meaningful radiative heat transfer primarily in the high emissivity directions. Decoupling the conventional limitations on angular and spectral response improves performance for applications such as thermal camouflaging, solar heating, radiative cooling, and waste heat recovery.
We experimentally realize a broadband directional thermal emitter by introducing a subwavelength photonic film consisting of multiple oxides that exhibit epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) regions at long-wave infrared wavelengths.
Leveraging improvements to device structures and cooling technologies, ultra-high-power bars have been integrated into multi-bar stacks to obtain CW power densities in excess of 2.8 kW/cm 2 near 960 nm with spectral widths of <4nm FWHM. These characteristics promise to enable cost-effective solutions for a variety of applications that demand very high spatial and/or spectral brightness. Using updated device designs, mini-bar variants have been employed to derive CW powers of several tens of Watts near 940 nm on traditional single-emitter platforms. For example, >37 W CW have been obtained from 5-emitter devices on standard CuW CT heatsinks with AuSn solder. Near 808 nm, a PCE of 65% with a slope efficiency of 1.29 W/A has been demonstrated with a 20%-fill-factor, 2-mm-cavity-length bar.
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