Enhancing thermal radiation with nanoantennas to create infrared sources with high modulation rates

Sakat, Emilie; Wojszvzyk, Léo; Hugonin, Jean‐Paul; Besbes, Mondher; Sauvan, Christophe

doi:10.1364/optica.5.000175

Cited by 37 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It follows from the local Kirchhoff law that if the absorption in the absorber volume is enhanced by the antenna, then its thermal emission is also enhanced. The total emitted power can be increased by the same factor σ ant =σ abs , which can be larger than 3 orders of magnitude [63]. Furthermore, the emission can be directional and frequency selective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been proposed [62] to emit at different wavelengths or in different directions or polarizations by heating different parts of a body. Finally, we also note that it has been shown that incandescent sources can be modulated at frequencies larger than 1 MHz when heating objects with a size smaller than 100 nm surrounded by antennas designed to increase the absorption cross section [63]. The usual Kirchhoff law, which is valid for isothermal bodies, cannot be used to deal with all these applications.…”

Section: Emission By Nonisothermal Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Light Emission by Nonequilibrium Bodies: Local Kirchhoff Law

et al. 2018

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The goal of this paper is to introduce a local form of Kirchhoff law to model light emission by nonequilibrium bodies. While absorption by a finite-size body is usually described using the absorption cross section, we introduce a local absorption rate per unit volume and also a local thermal emission rate per unit volume. Their equality is a local form of Kirchhoff law. We revisit the derivation of this equality and extend it to situations with subsystems in local thermodynamic equilibrium but not in equilibrium between them, such as hot electrons in a metal or electrons with different Fermi levels in the conduction band and in the valence band of a semiconductor. This form of Kirchhoff law can be used to model (i) thermal emission by nonisothermal finite-size bodies, (ii) thermal emission by bodies with carriers at different temperatures, and (iii) spontaneous emission by semiconductors under optical (photoluminescence) or electrical pumping (electroluminescence). Finally, we show that the reciprocity relation connecting light-emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells derived by Rau is a particular case of the local Kirchhoff law.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emission By Nonisothermal Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Emission by Nonequilibrium Bodies: Local Kirchhoff Law

et al. 2018

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“…The speed can be increased by decreasing the volume, and hence the heat capacity, of the emitters; however, this scaling also frequently decreases the total emitted power, which is proportional to the emitting area. This trade-off can be circumvented using emitters with inherently small volumes but relatively strong interaction with the incident light, such as two-dimensional materials or nanoantennas 63 . For example, current injection into carbon-nanotube (CNT) films has been used to demonstrate TE modulation of up to 10 GHz [ Fig.…”

Section: Tunable Thermal Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanophotonic engineering of far-field thermal emitters

et al. 2019

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Thermal emission is a ubiquitous and fundamental process by which all objects at non-zero temperatures radiate electromagnetic energy. This process is often presented to be incoherent in both space and time, resulting in broadband, omnidirectional light emission toward the far field, with a spectral density related to the emitter temperature by Planck's law. Over the past two decades, there has been considerable progress in engineering the spectrum, directionality, polarization, and temporal response of thermally emitted light using nanostructured materials. This review summarizes the basic physics of thermal emission, lays out various nanophotonic approaches to engineer thermal-emission in the far field, and highlights several relevant applications, including energy harvesting, lighting, and radiative cooling. 2 I: IntroductionEvery hot object emits electromagnetic radiation according to the fundamental principles of statistical mechanics. Examples of this phenomenon-dubbed thermal emission (TE)-include sunlight and the glow of an electric stovetop or embers in a fire. The basic physics behind TE from hot objects has been well understood for over a century, as described by Planck's law 1 , which states that an ideal black body (a fictitious object that perfectly absorbs over the entire electromagnetic spectrum and for all incident angles) emits a broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation determined by its temperature.Increasing the temperature of a black body results in an increase in emitted intensity, and a skew of the spectral distribution toward shorter wavelengths. A fundamental property of this process is that the thermal emissivity of any object-which quantifies the propensity of that object to generate TE compared to a black body-is determined by its optical absorptivity 1 . The connection between absorption and thermal emission, linked to the time reversibility of microscopic processes, suggests that the temporal and spatial coherence of the TE can be engineered via judicious material selection and patterning.Engineering of TE is of great interest for applications in lighting, thermoregulation, energy harvesting, tagging, and imaging. This review summarizes the basic physics of TE and surveys recent advances in the far-field control of TE via nanophotonic engineering. First, we present the basic formalism that describes TE, and review realizations of narrowband, directional, and dynamically reconfigurable far-field thermal emitters based on nanophotonic structures. Then we review applications of engineered far-field TE, with emphasis on energy and sustainability. II: Theoretical backgroundAt elevated temperatures, the constituents of matter, including electrons and atomic nuclei, possess

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“…Our work suggests the possibility of exploring such phenomena using thermal nonequilibrium without applying magnetic field. In context of using nonequilibrium systems for shaping thermal radiation, other recent works have explored directional emissivity [33,34], nontrivial thermal forces and torques [35] and enhanced emissivity from nonequilibrium antennas [36]. Our work conveys that one can take advantage of temperature-based reconfigurability in nonequilibrium systems, for numerous applications in communications, sensing and detection technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Circularly Polarized Thermal Radiation From Nonequilibrium Coupled Antennas

Khandekar

Jacob

2019

Phys. Rev. Applied

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Circularly polarized light can be obtained by using either polarization conversion or structural chirality. Here we reveal a fundamentally unrelated mechanism of generating circularly polarized light using coupled nonequilibrium sources. We show that thermal emission from a compact dimer of subwavelength, anisotropic antennas can be highly circularly polarized when the antennas are at unequal temperatures. Furthermore, the handedness of emitted light is flipped upon interchanging the temperatures of the antennas, thereby enabling reconfigurability of the polarization state lacked by most circularly polarized light sources. We describe the fundamental origin of this mechanism using rigorous fluctuational electrodynamic analysis and further provide practical examples for its experimental implementation. Apart from the technology applications in reconfigurable devices, communication, and sensing, this work motivates new inquiries of angular momentum related thermal radiation phenomena using thermal nonequilibrium, without applying magnetic field.

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Enhancing thermal radiation with nanoantennas to create infrared sources with high modulation rates

Cited by 37 publications

References 29 publications

Light Emission by Nonequilibrium Bodies: Local Kirchhoff Law

Light Emission by Nonequilibrium Bodies: Local Kirchhoff Law

Nanophotonic engineering of far-field thermal emitters

Circularly Polarized Thermal Radiation From Nonequilibrium Coupled Antennas

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