Manipulating thermal emission with spatially static fluctuating fields in arbitrarily shaped epsilon-near-zero bodies
Abstract
Harnessing thermal fields is a current scientific challenge with far-reaching technological implications on heat and energy management, chemistry, and bioengineering. However, the random nature of thermal field sources, which eliminates phase information, hinders the use of interference-based conventional optical techniques. We propose an alternative route to control thermal fields based on epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) media, a medium with near-zero permittivity. We show how the effective enlargement of the wavelength on ENZ media results on intrinsically (material-based) enhanced spatial coherence, quite independently of the geometry of the ENZ body itself. This provides distinct opportunities in engineering thermal radiation, while maintaining flexibility on the geometrical degrees of freedom (shape of the body and/or position of the particles within it).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1718264115
Entities
People
- Iñigo Liberal
- Nader Engheta
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Public University of Navarre
- University of Pennsylvania