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Mauro Antezza

Publications and source records attributed to Mauro Antezza.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Confinement-Induced Nonlocality and Casimir Force in Transdimensional Systems

We study within the framework of the Lifshitz theory the long-range Casimir force for in-plane isotropic and anisotropic free-standing transdimensional material slabs. In the former case, we show that the confinement-induced nonlocality not only weakens the attraction of ultrathin slabs but also changes the distance dependence of the material-dependent correction to the Casimir force to go as $\sim\!1/\!\sqrt{l}$ contrary to the $\sim\!1/l$ dependence of that of the local Lifshitz force. In the latter case, we use closely packed array of parallel aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes in a dielectric layer of finite thickness to demonstrate strong orientational anisotropy and crossover behavior for the inter-slab attractive force in addition to its reduction with decreasing slab thickness. We give physical insight as to why such a pair of ultrathin slabs prefers to stick together in the perpendicularly oriented manner, rather than in the parallel relative orientation as one would customarily expect.

quant-ph↗

Multiple magnetoplasmon polaritons of magneto-optical graphene in near-field radiative heat transfer

Graphene, as a two-dimensional magneto-optical material, supports magnetoplasmon polaritons (MPP) when exposed to an applied magnetic field. Recently, MPP of a single-layer graphene has shown an excellent capability in the modulation of near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). In this study, we present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of NFRHT between two multilayered graphene structures, with a particular focus on the multiple MPP effect. We reveal the physical mechanism and evolution law of the multiple MPP, and we demonstrate that the multiple MPP allow one to mediate, enhance, and tune the NFRHT by appropriately engineering the properties of graphene, the number of graphene sheets, the intensity of magnetic fields, as well as the geometric structure of systems. We show that the multiple MPP have a quite significant distinction relative to the single MPP or multiple surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in terms of modulating and manipulating NFRHT.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Performance improvement of three-body radiative diode driven by graphene surface plasmon polaritons

As an analogue to electrical diode, a radiative thermal diode allows radiation to transfer more efficiently in one direction than in the opposite direction by operating in a contactless mode. In this study, we demonstrated that, within the framework of three-body photon thermal tunneling, the rectification performance of three-body radiative diode can be greatly improved by bringing graphene into the system. The system is composed of three parallel slabs, with the hot and cold terminals of the diode coated with graphene films, and the intermediate body made of vanadium dioxide (VO2). The rectification factor of the proposed radiative thermal diode reaches 300 % with a 350 nm separation distance between the hot and cold terminals of the diode. With the help of graphene, the rectification performance of the radiative thermal diode can be improved by over 11 times. By analyzing the spectral heat flux and energy transmission coefficients, it was found that the improved performance is primarily attributed to the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of graphene. They excite the modes of insulating VO2 in the forward-biased scenario by forming strongly coupled modes between graphene and VO2, and thus dramatically enhance the heat flux. While, for the reverse-biased scenario, the VO2 is at its metallic state and thus graphene SPPs cannot work by three-body photon thermal tunneling. Furthermore, the improvement was also investigated for different chemical potentials of graphene, and geometric parameters of the three-body system. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using thermal-photon-based logical circuits, creating radiation-based communication technology, and implementing thermal management approaches at the nanoscale.

physics.optics↗

Casimir-Lifshitz force for moving graphene

We consider the system of two parallel sheets of graphene which are moving with relative parallel velocity $\vec{v}$ and calculate the Casimir energy by using the scattering approach. The energy has real and imaginary parts. The real part contains a velocity contribution to the force perpendicular to the sheets. The imaginary part is related to a friction force parallel to the graphene sheets. We prove that the friction appears if the relative velocity becomes greater than the velocity of Fermi and if the modulo of reflection coefficient is greater than the one which is significant for virtual photon production. We analyze in detail the real contribution to the Casimir energy for two systems -- graphene/graphene and ideal metal/graphene. In the non-relativistic case $v \ll v_F$, the relative correction to the Casimir energy $(\mathcal{E}_v - \mathcal{E}_0)/\mathcal{E}_0$ is proportional to the $(v/c)^2$ (the maximum value is $0.0033$ for the gapeless case and $v=v_F$) for the first system, and it is zero up to the Fermi velocity $v = v_F$ for system ideal metal/graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Disorder-induced topological phase transition in HgCdTe crystals

Using the self-consistent Born approximation, we study a topological phase transition appearing in bulk HgCdTe crystals induced \emph{uncorrelated} disorder due to both randomly distributed impurities and fluctuations in Cd composition. By following the density-of-states evolution, we clearly demonstrate the topological phase transition, which can be understood in terms of the disorder-renormalized mass of Kane fermions. We find that the presence of heavy-hole band in HgCdTe crystals leads to the topological phase transition at much lower disorder strength than it is expected for conventional 3D topological insulators. Our theoretical results can be also applied to other narrow-gap zinc-blende semiconductors such as InAs, InSb and their ternary alloys InAsSb.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Photothermal behavior for two-dimensional nanoparticle ensembles: Multiple scattering and thermal accumulation effects

Light-assisted micro-nanoscale temperature control in complex nanoparticle network attracts lots of research interests. Many efforts have been put on the optical properties of the nanoparticle networks and only a few investigations on its light-induced thermal behavior was reported. We consider two-dimensional (2D) square-lattice nanoparticle ensemble made of typical metal Ag with a radius of 5 nm. The effect of complex optical coupling and thermal accumulation on the light-induced thermal behavior in plasmonic resonance frequency (around 383 nm) is analyzed by means of the Green\textquotesingle s function approach. Regime borders of both optical coupling and thermal accumulation effects on the photothermal behavior of 2D square-lattice nanoparticle ensemble are figured out clearly and quantitatively. A dimensionless parameter $φ$ is defined as the ratio of full temperature increase to that without considering the optical coupling or thermal accumulation to quantify the optical coupling and thermal accumulation effects on photothermal behavior. The more compact the nanoparticle ensemble is, the stronger the optical coupling on thermal behavior is. When the lattice spacing increases to tens of nanoparticle radius, the optical coupling becomes insignificant. When $φ\approx 1$ (lattice spacing increases to hundreds of nanoparticle radius), the thermal accumulation effects are weak and can be neglected safely. The polarization-dependent distribution of temperature increase of nanoparticles is observed only in the compact nanoparticle ensemble, while for dilute ensemble, such polarization-dependent temperature increase distribution can not be observed anymore. This work may help for the understanding of the light-induced thermal transport in the 2D particle ensemble.

physics.optics↗

Electromagnetic scattering by a partially graphene-coated dielectric cylinder : efficient computation and multiple plasmonic resonances

We present a numerical approach for the solution of electromagnetic scattering from a dielectric cylinder partially covered with graphene. It is based on a classical Fourier-Bessel expansion of the fields inside and outside the cylinder to which we apply ad-hoc boundary conditions in presence of graphene. Due to the singular nature of the electric field at the edges of the graphene sheet, we introduce auxiliary boundary conditions. The result is particularly simple and very efficient method allowing the study of diffraction from such structures. We also highlight the presence of multiple plasmonic resonances that we ascribe to the surface modes of the coated cylinder.

physics.optics↗

Radiative heat transfer in low-symmetry Bravais crystal

Over the last few years, broken symmetry within crystals has attracted extensive attention since it can improve the control of light propagation. In particular, low-symmetry Bravais crystal can support shear polaritons which has great potential in thermal photonics. In this work, we report a twist-induced near-field thermal control system based on the low-symmetry Bravais crystal medium (\b{eta}-Ga2O3). The near-field thermal radiation (NFTR) between such crystal slabs is nearly four orders of magnitude larger than the blackbody limit, exceeding the NFTR from other traditional dielectric materials. Moreover, we show that this crystal can serve as an excellent platform for twist-induced near-field thermal control. Due to the intrinsic shear effect, the twist-induced modulation supported by low-symmetry Bravais crystal exceeds that by high-symmetry crystal. We further clarify how the shear effect affects the twist-induced thermal-radiation modulation supported by hyperbolic and elliptical polaritons and show that the shear effect significantly enhances the twist-induced thermal control induced by the elliptical polariton mode. These results open new directions for thermal-radiation control in low-symmetry materials, including geological minerals, common oxides, and organic crystals.

physics.app-ph↗

Controllable thermal radiation from twisted bilayer graphen

The presence of interlayer interactions in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) enhances several characteristics, including the optical and electrical properties. We theoretically investigate the magic angle of TBG according to the vanishing of Fermi velocity and find double magic angles in a series. The thermal radiation from TBG can be tuned to the far infrared range by changing twist angles. The peculiar radiation spectrum is out of atmospheric window, which can be of great use in invisibility and keeping warm. The total radiation of TBG is slightly more than twice of a single layer graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dissipative Topological Phase Transition with Strong System-Environment Coupling

A primary motivation for studying topological matter regards the protection of topological order from its environment. In this work, we study a topological emitter array coupled to an electromagnetic environment. The photon-emitter coupling produces nonlocal interactions between emitters. Using periodic boundary conditions for all ranges of environment-induced interactions, the chiral symmetry inherent to the emitter array is preserved. This chiral symmetry protects the Hamiltonian, and induces parity in the Lindblad operator. A topological phase transition occurs at a critical photon-emitter coupling related to the energy spectrum width of the emitter array. Interestingly, the critical point nontrivially changes the dissipation rates of edge states, yielding a dissipative topological phase transition. In the protected topological phase, edge states suffer from environment-induced dissipation for weak photon-emitter coupling. However, strong coupling leads to robust dissipationless edge states with a window at the emitter spacing. Our work shows the potential to manipulate topological quantum matter with electromagnetic environments.

quant-ph↗

Dual-band nonreciprocal thermal radiation by coupling optical Tamm states in magnetophotonic multilayers

Kirchhoff s law is one of the most fundamental law in thermal radiation. The violation of traditional Kirchhoff s law provides opportunities for higher energy conversion efficiency. Various micro-structures have been proposed to realize single-band nonreciprocal thermal emitters. However, dual-band nonreciprocal thermal emitters remain barely investigated. In this paper, we introduce magneto-optical material into a cascading one-dimensional (1-D) magnetophotonic crystal (MPC) heterostructure composed of two 1-D MPCs and a metal layer. Assisted by the nonreciprocity of the magneto-optical material and the coupling effect of two optical Tamm states (OTSs), a dual-band nonreciprocal lithography-free thermal emitter is achieved. The emitter exhibits strong dual-band nonreciprocal radiation at the wavelengths of 15.337 um and 15.731 um when the external magnetic field is 3 T and the angle of incidence is 56 degree. Besides, the magnetic field distribution is also calculated to confirm that the dual-band nonreciprocal radiation originates from the coupling effect between two OTSs. Our work may pave the way for constructing dual-band and multi-band nonreciprocal thermal emitters.

physics.optics↗

Dynamical Polarizability of Graphene with Spatial Dispersion

We perform a detailed analysis of electronic polarizability of graphene with different theoretical approaches. From Kubo's linear response formalism, we give a general expression of frequency and wave-vector dependent polarizability within the random phase approximation. Four theoretical approaches have been applied to the single-layer graphene and their differences are on the band-overlap of wavefunctions. By comparing with the \textit{ab initio} calculation, we discuss the validity of methods used in literature. Our results show that the tight-binding method is as good as the time-demanding \textit{ab initio} approach in calculating the polarizability of graphene. Moreover, due to the special Dirac-cone band structure of graphene, the Dirac model reproduces results of the tight-binding method for energy smaller than \SI{3}{\electronvolt}. For doped graphene, the intra-band transitions dominate at low energies and can be described by the Lindhard formula for two-dimensional electron gases. At zero temperature and long-wavelength limit, with the relaxation time approximation, all theoretical methods reduce to a long-wave analytical formula and the intra-band contributions agree to the Drude polarizability of graphene. Effects of electrical doping and temperature are also discussed. This work may provide a solid reference for researches and applications of the screening effect of graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Magnetic field-induced thermal emission tuning of InSb-based metamaterials in the terahertz frequency regime

This work theoretically and analytically demonstrates the magnetic field-induced spectral radiative properties of photonic metamaterials incorporating both Indium Antimonide (InSb) and Tungsten (W) in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime. We have varied multiple factors of the nanostructures, including composite materials, layer thicknesses and surface grating fill factors, which impact the light-matter interactions and in turn modify the thermal emission of the metamaterials. We have proposed and validated a method for determining the spectral properties of InSb under an applied direct current (DC) magnetic field, and have employed this method to analyze how these properties can be dynamically tuned by modulating the magnitude of the field. For the first time, we have designed an InSb-W metamaterial exhibiting unity narrowband emission which can serve as an emitter for wavelengths around 55 $μ$m (approximately 5.5 THz). Additionally, the narrowband emission of this metamaterial can be magnetically tuned in both bandwidth and peak wavelength with a normal emissivity close to unity.

physics.optics↗

Strong geometry dependence of the Casimir force between interpenetrated rectangular gratings

Quantum fluctuations give rise to Casimir forces between two parallel conducting plates, the magnitude of which increases monotonically as the separation decreases. By introducing nanoscale gratings to the surfaces, recent advances have opened opportunities for controlling the Casimir force in complex geometries. Here, we measure the Casimir force between two rectangular gratings in regimes not accessible before. Using an on-chip detection platform, we achieve accurate alignment between the two gratings so that they interpenetrate as the separation is reduced. Just before interpenetration occurs, the measured Casimir force is found to have a geometry dependence that is much stronger than previous experiments, with deviations from the proximity force approximation reaching a factor of ~500. After the gratings interpenetrate each other, the Casimir force becomes non-zero and independent of displacement. This work shows that the presence of gratings can strongly modify the Casimir force to control the interaction between nanomechanical components.

quant-ph↗

Many-body effective thermal conductivity in phase-change nanoparticle chains due to near-field radiative heat transfer

In dense systems composed of numerous nanoparticles, direct simulations of near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) require considerable computational resources. NFRHT for the simple one-dimensional nanoparticle chains embedded in a non-absorbing host medium is investigated from the point of view of the continuum by means of an approach combining the many-body radiative heat transfer theory and the Fourier law. Effects of the phase change of the insulator-metal transition material (VO$_2$), the complex many-body interaction (MBI) and the host medium relative permittivity on the characteristic effective thermal conductivity (ETC) are analyzed. The ETC for VO$_2$ nanoparticle chains below the transition temperature can be as high as 50 times of that above the transition temperature due to the phase change effect. The strong coupling in the insulator-phase VO$_2$ nanoparticle chain accounts for its high ETC as compared to the low ETC for the chain at the metallic phase, where there is a mismatch between the characteristic thermal frequency and resonance frequency. The strong MBI is in favor of the ETC. For SiC nanoparticle chains, the MBI even can double the ETC as compared to those without considering the MBI effect. For the dense chains, a strong MBI enhances the ETC due to the strong inter-particles couplings. When the chains go more and more dilute, the MBI can be neglected safely due to negligible couplings. The host medium relative permittivity significantly affects the inter-particles couplings, which accounts for the permittivity-dependent ETC for the VO$_2$ nanoparticle chains.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Polariton Topological Transition Effects on Radiative Heat Transfer

Twisted two-dimensional bilayer materials exhibit many exotic physical phenomena. Manipulating the twist angle between the two layers enables fine control of the physical structure, resulting in development of many novel physics, such as the magic-angle flat-band superconductivity, the formation of moire exciton and interlayer magnetism. Here, combined with analogous principles, we study theoretically the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between two twisted hyperbolic systems. This two twisted hyperbolic systems are mirror images of each other. Each twisted hyperbolic system is composed of two graphene gratings, where there is an angle ϕ between this two graphene gratings. By analyzing the photonic transmission coefficient as well as the plasmon dispersion relation of twisted hyperbolic system, we prove that the topological transitions of the surface state at a special angle (from open (hyperbolic) to closed (elliptical) contours) can modulate efficiently the radiative heat transfer. Meanwhile the role of the thickness of dielectric spacer and vacuum gap on the manipulating the topological transitions of the surface state and the NFRHT are also discussed. We predict the hysteresis effect of topological transitions at a larger vacuum gap, and demonstrate that as thickness of dielectric spacer increase, the transition from the enhancement effect of heat transfer caused by the twisted hyperbolic system to a suppression. This technology could novel mechanism and control method for NFRHT, and may open a promising pathway for highly efficient thermal management, energy harvesting, and subwavelength thermal imaging.

physics.optics↗

Casimir-Polder force and torque for anisotropic molecules close to conducting planes and their effects on CO$_2$

We derive the Casimir-Polder force and Casimir torque expressions for an anisotropic molecule close to a conducting plane with a tensorial conductivity. We apply our general expressions to the case of a carbon dioxide CO$_2$ molecule close to a plane with pure Hall conductivity and to graphene. We show that the equilibrium position of this linear molecule is with its main axis perpendicular to the surface. We hence conjecture a possible way to exploit the Casimir torque to mechanically improve the performance of CO$_2$ separation membranes useful for an efficient atmospheric CO$_2$ reduction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Inverse design of a 1D dielectric metasurface by topology optimization: fluctuations-trend analysis assisted by a diamond-square algorithm

We present a topology optimization (TO) method for a 1D dielectric metasurface, coupling the classical trend-fluctuations analysis (FTA) and the diamond-square-algorithm (DSA). In the classical FTA, a couple of device distributions termed Fluctuation or mother and Trends or father, with specific spectra is initially generated. The spectral properties of the trend function, allow to target efficiently the basin of optimal solutions. For optimizing a 1D metasurface to deflect a normally incident plane wave into a given deflecting angle, a cosine-like function has been identified to be an optimal father profile allowing to efficiently target a basin of local minima. However there is no efficient method to predict the father profile number of oscillations that effectively allows to avoid undesirable local optima. It would be natural to suggest a randomization of the variable which controls the number of oscillations of the father function. However, one of the main drawbacks of the randomness searching process is that, combined with a gradient method, the algorithm can target, undesirable local minima. The method proposed in this paper improves the possibility of the classical FTA to avoid the trapping of undesirable local optimal solutions. This is accomplished by extending the initial candidate family to higher quality offspring that are generated thanks to a diamond-square-algorithm (DSA). Doing so, ensures that the main features of the best trends are stored in the genes of all Offspring structures.

physics.optics↗