Super-Planckian far-zone thermal emission from asymmetric hyperbolic metamaterials

We demonstrate the production of strong directive thermal emissions in the far-field zone of asymmetric hyperbolic metamaterials (AHMs), exceeding that predicted by Planck's limit. Asymmetry is inherent to the uniaxial medium, where the optical axis is tilted with respect to medium interfaces....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2014-10, Vol.105 (16)
Main Authors: Nefedov, Igor S., Melnikov, Leonid A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
ASYMMETRY
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COUPLING
DENSITY
Density of states
EFFICIENCY
EMISSION
Far fields
INTERFACES
LAYERS
MATERIALS
Metamaterials
Multilayers
PHOTONS
REFLECTION
Thermal emission
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We demonstrate the production of strong directive thermal emissions in the far-field zone of asymmetric hyperbolic metamaterials (AHMs), exceeding that predicted by Planck's limit. Asymmetry is inherent to the uniaxial medium, where the optical axis is tilted with respect to medium interfaces. The use of AHMs is shown to enhance the free-space coupling efficiency of thermally radiated waves, resulting in Super-Planckian far-field thermal emission in certain directions. This effect is impossible in usual hyperbolic materials because emission of high density of states (DOS) photons into vacuum with smaller DOS is preserved by the total internal reflection. Different plasmonic metamaterials are proposed for realizing AHM media; the thermal emission from a AHM, based on a grapheme multilayer structure, is presented, as an example.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4899126