Mathieu Francoeur

Near-field radiative transfer based thermal rectification using doped silicon

In this letter, we have designed a near-field thermal rectifier using a film and a bulk of doped silicon, with different doping levels, separated by a vacuum gap. We examine the origin of nonlinearities in thermal rectification associated with near-field heat transfer, and investigate closely the effects of varying the vacuum gap and the film thickness on rectification. For a 10 nm thick film, rectification greater than 0.5 is achieved for vacuum gaps varying from 1 nm to 50 nm with the hot and cold temperatures of the terminals of the rectifier being 400 K and 300 K, respectively. The results obtained from this study may benefit future research in thermal management and energy harvesting.

Near-field radiative heat transfer enhancement via surface phonon polaritons coupling in thin films

We investigate near-field thermal radiation between a nanometric film and a bulk SiC using fluctuational electrodynamics. Results show a narrow spectral band enhancement of the radiative flux for nanometric emitters due to coupling of surface phonon polaritons inside the film. For a 10nm thick SiC emitter, the total radiative flux is 2.2 times larger than for a bulk emitter. The total radiative flux is increased by a factor of 3.3 if a dielectric is coated with a 10nm SiC film due to a splitting of the resonant frequency into two distinct ones, which has practical interests for near-field thermophotovoltaic devices.

Spectral tuning of near-field radiative heat flux between two thin silicon carbide films

Spectral distributions of radiative heat flux between two thin silicon carbide films separated by sub-wavelength distances in vacuum are analysed. An analytical expression for the near-field flux between two layers of finite thicknesses in terms of film reflection and transmission coefficients is derived for the first time. The resulting equation clearly shows the resonant modes of thermal emission, absorption and the cross-coupling of surface phonon-polaritons (SPhPs) between the layers. When the films are of the same thickness, the resonant frequencies maximizing near-field thermal emission almost match those of absorption. The small discrepancies, due to SPhP coupling between the films, lead to loss of spectral coherence affecting mostly the low frequency mode. The flux profiles also show that splitting of the resonance into two distinct frequencies happens when the ratio thickness of the film over the separation gap is less than unity. When the thickness of one film increases relative to the other, spectral distributions of flux are significantly altered due to an important mismatch between the resonant frequencies of high emission and absorption. This modification of the near-field flux is mostly due to weaker SPhP coupling within the layer of increasing thickness. Based on an asymptotic analysis of the dispersion relation, an approximate approach is proposed to predict the resonant modes maximizing the flux between two films, which can be potentially extended to multiple thin layers. The outcome of this work would allow tailoring near-field radiative heat transfer, and can eventually be used to design customized nanostructures for energy harvesting applications.

Electric and magnetic surface polariton mediated near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterials made of silicon carbide particles

Near-field radiative heat transfer between isotropic, dielectric-based metamaterials is analyzed. A potassium bromide host medium comprised of silicon carbide (SiC) spheres with a volume filling fraction of 0.4 is considered for the metamaterial. The relative electric permittivity and relative magnetic permeability of the metamaterial are modeled via the Clausius-Mossotti relations linking the macroscopic response of the medium with the polarizabilities of the spheres. We show for the first time that electric and magnetic surface polariton (SP) mediated near-field radiative heat transfer occurs between dielectric-based structures. Magnetic SPs, existing in TE polarization, are physically due to strong magnetic dipole resonances of the spheres. We find that spherical inclusions with radii of 1 μm (or greater) are needed in order to induce SPs in TE polarization. On the other hand, electric SPs existing in TM polarization are generated by surface modes of the spheres, and are thus almost insensitive to the size of the inclusions. We estimate that the total heat flux around SP resonance for the metamaterial comprised of SiC spheres with radii of 1 μm is about 35% greater than the flux predicted between two bulks of SiC, where only surface phonon-polaritons in TM polarization are excited. The results presented in this work show that the near-field thermal spectrum can be engineered via dielectric-based metamaterials, which is crucial in many emerging technologies, such as in nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic power generation.

Local density of electromagnetic states within a nanometric gap formed between two thin films supporting surface phonon polaritons

We present a detailed physical analysis of the near-field thermal radiation spectrum emitted by a silicon carbide (SiC) film when another nonemitting SiC layer is brought in close proximity. This is accomplished via the calculation of the local density of electromagnetic states (LDOS) within the gap formed between the two thin films. An analytical expression for the LDOS is derived, showing explicitly that (i) surface phonon polariton (SPhP) coupling between the layers leads to four resonant modes, and (ii) near-field thermal radiation emission is enhanced due to the presence of the nonemitting film. We study the impact of the interfilm separation gap, the distance where the fields are calculated, and the thickness of the nonemitting layer on the spectral distribution of the LDOS. Results show that for an interfilm gap of 10 nm, the near-field spectrum emitted around the SPhP resonance can increase more than an order of magnitude as compared to a single emitting thin layer. Interfilm SPhP coupling also in...

Impacts of propagating, frustrated and surface modes on radiative, electrical and thermal losses in nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic power generators

The impacts of radiative, electrical and thermal losses on the performances of nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic (nano-TPV) power generators consisting of a gallium antimonide cell paired with a broadband tungsten and a radiatively-optimized Drude radiator are analyzed. Results reveal that surface mode mediated nano-TPV power generation with the Drude radiator outperforms the tungsten radiator, dominated by frustrated modes, only for a vacuum gap thickness of 10 nm and if both electrical and thermal losses are neglected. The key limiting factors for the Drude- and tungsten-based devices are respectively the recombination of electron-hole pairs at the cell surface and thermalization of radiation with energy larger than the cell absorption bandgap. A design guideline is also proposed where a high energy cutoff above which radiation has a net negative effect on nano-TPV power output due to thermal losses is determined. It is shown that the power output of a tungsten-based device increases by 6.5% while the cell temperature decreases by 30 K when applying a high energy cutoff at 1.45 eV. This work demonstrates that design and optimization of nano-TPV devices must account for radiative, electrical and thermal losses.

Radiative heat transfer exceeding the blackbody limit between macroscale planar surfaces separated by a nanosize vacuum gap

Using Rytovs fluctuational electrodynamics framework, Polder and Van Hove predicted that radiative heat transfer between planar surfaces separated by a vacuum gap smaller than the thermal wavelength exceeds the blackbody limit due to tunnelling of evanescent modes. This finding has led to the conceptualization of systems capitalizing on evanescent modes such as thermophotovoltaic converters and thermal rectifiers. Their development is, however, limited by the lack of devices enabling radiative transfer between macroscale planar surfaces separated by a nanosize vacuum gap. Here we measure radiative heat transfer for large temperature differences (∼120 K) using a custom-fabricated device in which the gap separating two 5 × 5 mm2 intrinsic silicon planar surfaces is modulated from 3,500 to 150 nm. A substantial enhancement over the blackbody limit by a factor of 8.4 is reported for a 150-nm-thick gap. Our device paves the way for the establishment of novel evanescent wave-based systems.

Maximum near-field radiative heat transfer between thin films

In this letter, we investigate the maximum near-field radiative heat transfer achievable between two thin films. By using frequency-independent permittivities for the films, we obtain optimum values of the real (eopt′) and imaginary (eopt″) parts of the dielectric function maximizing the heat transfer for different thicknesses. We show that when the ratio D of the film thicknesses tf to the vacuum gap d is equal or less than 0.1, the maximum heat flux becomes independent of D. Based on the analysis performed in this study, it is possible to suitably choose film thicknesses maximizing near-field heat transfer at different vacuum gaps. The results obtained in this work also allow the interpretation of the physical details underlying near-field thermal radiation between films.

Penetration depth in near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterials

In this letter, we investigate the penetration depth in near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterials when surface polaritons are excited at both electrical and magnetic resonances. The analyses show that based on the optical properties of the metamaterial, two different penetration depths can be defined corresponding to electrical and magnetic resonances. Depending upon the scattering rate of the metamaterial, it is possible to selectively enhance or reduce the penetration depth of near-field thermal radiation at electric and magnetic resonances. The results obtained from this study will benefit applications of metamaterials in near-field energy harvesting.

Near-field radiative heat transfer between arbitrarily shaped objects and a surface

A fluctuational electrodynamics-based formalism for calculating near-field radiative heat transfer between objects of arbitrary size and shape and an infinite surface is presented. The surface interactions are treated analytically via Sommerfelds theory of electric dipole radiation above an infinite plane. The volume integral equation for the electric field is discretized using the thermal discrete dipole approximation (T-DDA). The framework is verified against exact results in the sphere-surface configuration and is applied to analyze near-field radiative heat transfer between a complex-shaped probe and an infinite plane, both made of silica. It is found that, when the probe tip size is approximately equal to or smaller than the gap