Powering Spatially Coherent Long-Wave Infrared Sources and Beacons using Waste Heat
Abstract
To demonstrate the feasibility of powering modulated, infrared (IR) sources using waste heat. Our approach is based on tailoring the emissivity of polaritonic materials using nanostructure shape/material design, resulting in narrow-band IR emission, with the potential for spatial coherence induced through deterministic nanostructure array design. Such structures are ideal for serving as passive IR sensors, beacons or optical sources that offer a wide array of applications of importance to the DoD as well as commercial sector. For instance, such beacons are optimal, low-cost devices for inter- and intra-chip photonic interconnects, identify friend/foe, automated targeting or for designating sensor change of status applications, while also offering functionality as a passive beacon to designate a failed solar cell or as low-cost sources for IR molecular spectroscopy. The device design is built around the concept of tailored thermal emissivity using polaritonic optical antennas, built into defined array patterns. Polaritons are quasi-particles comprised of a ptical functions such as focusing or beam steering can be realized without the need for external optics, drastically simplifying the design. These devices are solid-state, and can provide polarized emission without the need for electronic active regions, with the emission driven through the black-body radiation concept. Therefore, this approach is ideal for harvesting waste heat from various sources, for instance vehicle engines, solar concentrators or high-power electronic circuits, as the only external stimulus needed to turn on the emission is a source of heat. We will focus our efforts in modeling for optimizing thermal emission output, including electromagnetic modeling of the nanostructures and a compact model of the thermodynamic system where the emitter is driven from the waste-heat given off by a CPU, for demonstration of the potential for on-chip photonic applications.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810392
Entities
People
- Joshua Caldwell
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- Vanderbilt University