arXiv · 2210.02155
Design rules for active control of narrowband thermal emission using phase-change materials
Abstract
We propose an analytical framework to design actively tunable narrowband thermal emitters at infrared frequencies. We exemplify the proposed design rules using phase-change materials (PCM), considering dielectric-to-dielectric PCMs (e.g. GSST) and dielectric-to-metal PCMs (e.g. $\mathrm{VO_2}$). Based on these, we numerically illustrate near-unity ON-OFF switching and arbitrarily large spectral shifting between two emission wavelengths, respectively. The proposed systems are lithography-free and consist of one or several thin emitter layers, a spacer layer which includes the PCM, and a back reflector. Our model applies to normal incidence, though we show that the behavior is essentially angle-independent. The presented formalism is general and can be extended to \textit{any} mechanism that modifies the optical properties of a material, such as electrostatic gating or thermo-optical modulation.
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Maxime Giteau, Mitradeep Sarkar, Maria Paula Ayala, Michael T. Enders, Georgia T. Papadakis. 2022-10-05. Design rules for active control of narrowband thermal emission using phase-change materials. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.19.l051002
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