D. Ding

Length Dependent Thermal Conductivity Measurements Yield Phonon Mean Free Path Spectra in Nanostructures

Thermal conductivity measurements over variable lengths on nanostructures such as nanowires provide important information about the mean free paths (MFPs) of the phonons responsible for heat conduction. However, nearly all of these measurements have been interpreted using an average MFP even though phonons in many crystals possess a broad MFP spectrum. Here, we present a reconstruction method to obtain MFP spectra of nanostructures from variable-length thermal conductivity measurements. Using this method, we investigate recently reported length-dependent thermal conductivity measurements on SiGe alloy nanowires and suspended graphene ribbons. We find that the recent measurements on graphene imply that 70% of the heat in graphene is carried by phonons with MFPs longer than 1 micron.

Radial Quasiballistic Transport in Time-Domain Thermoreflectance Studied Using Monte Carlo Simulations

Recently, a pump beam size dependence of thermal conductivity was observed in Si at cryogenic temperatures using time-domain thermal reflectance (TDTR). These observations were attributed to quasiballistic phonon transport, but the interpretation of the measurements has been semi-empirical. Here, we present a numerical study of the heat conduction that occurs in the full 3D geometry of a TDTR experiment, including an interface, using the Boltzmann transport equation. We identify the radial suppression function that describes the suppression in heat flux, compared to Fouriers law, that occurs due to quasiballistic transport and demonstrate good agreement with experimental data. We also discuss unresolved discrepancies that are important topics for future study.

A state-insensitive, compensated nanofiber trap

Laser trapping and interfacing of laser-cooled atoms in an optical fiber network is an important tool for quantum information science. Following the pioneering work of Balykin et al (2004 Phys. Rev. A 70 011401) and Vetsch et al (2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 203603), we propose a robust method for trapping single cesium atoms with a two-color state-insensitive evanescent wave around a dielectric nanofiber. Specifically, we show that vector light shifts (i.e. effective inhomogeneous Zeeman broadening of the ground states) induced by the inherent ellipticity of the forward-propagating evanescent wave can be effectively canceled by a backward-propagating evanescent wave. Furthermore, by operating the trapping lasers at the magic wavelengths, we remove the differential scalar light shift between ground and excited states, thereby allowing for resonant driving of the optical D2 transition. This scheme provides a promising approach to trap and probe neutral atoms with long trap and coherence lifetimes with realistic experimental parameters.

Elastic and thermal properties of free-standing molybdenum disulfide membranes measured using ultrafast transient grating spectroscopy

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a member of transition-metal dichalcogenide family, is of intense interest due to its unique electronic and thermoelectric properties. However, reports of its in-plane thermal conductivity vary due to the difficulty of in-plane thermal conductivity measurements on thin films, and an experimental measurement of the in-plane sound velocity has not been reported. Here, we use time-resolved transient grating spectroscopy to simultaneously measure the in-plane elastic and thermal properties of free-standing MoS2 membranes at room temperature. We obtain a longitudinal acoustic phonon velocity of 7000 ± 40 m s−1 and an in-plane thermal conductivity of 74 ± 21 W m−1K−1. Our measurements provide useful insights into the elastic and thermal properties of MoS2 and demonstrate the capability of transient grating spectroscopy to investigate the in-plane vibrational properties of van der Waals materials that are challenging to characterize with conventional methods.

Active Thermal Extraction and Temperature Sensing of Near-field Thermal Radiation

Recently, we proposed an active thermal extraction (ATX) scheme that enables thermally populated surface phonon polaritons to escape into the far-field. The concept is based on a fluorescence upconversion process that also occurs in laser cooling of solids (LCS). Here, we present a generalized analysis of our scheme using the theoretical framework for LCS. We show that both LCS and ATX can be described with the same mathematical formalism by replacing the electron-phonon coupling parameter in LCS with the electron-photon coupling parameter in ATX. Using this framework, we compare the ideal efficiency and power extracted for the two schemes and examine the parasitic loss mechanisms. This work advances the application of ATX to manipulate near-field thermal radiation for applications such as temperature sensing and active radiative cooling.

Active Thermal Extraction of Near-field Thermal Radiation

Radiative heat transport between materials supporting surface-phonon polaritons is greatly enhanced when the materials are placed at subwavelength separation as a result of the contribution of near-field surface modes. However, the enhancement is limited to small separations due to the evanescent decay of the surface waves. In this work, we propose and numerically demonstrate an active scheme to extract these modes to the far field. Our approach exploits the monochromatic nature of near-field thermal radiation to drive a transition in a laser gain medium, which, when coupled with external optical pumping, allows the resonant surface mode to be emitted into the far field. Our study demonstrates an approach to manipulate thermal radiation that could find applications in thermal management.

Selective radiative heating of nanostructures using hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM) are of great interest due to their ability to break the diffraction limit for imaging and enhance near-field radiative heat transfer. Here we demonstrate that an annular, transparent HMM enables selective heating of a sub-wavelength plasmonic nanowire by controlling the angular mode number of a plasmonic resonance. A nanowire emitter, surrounded by an HMM, appears dark to incoming radiation from an adjacent nanowire emitter unless the second emitter is surrounded by an identical lens such that the wavelength and angular mode of the plasmonic resonance match. Our result can find applications in radiative thermal management.