EAGER: Absorption engineering of optical and thermal hyperbolic metafilm patterns

本研究的目的是探索超宽带片上光捕获机制，以实现有效的光子/热管理、能量收集和增强热光子转换。这项工作带来的前景广阔的应用可能对我们国家的能源、环境和可持续性需求产生巨大的长期影响。将研究与教育相结合是这一跨学科努力的重中之重，它将纳米技术、计算电磁学、光电子学、电气工程和能源研究联系起来。该项目将为学生提供最先进的纳米光子技术，并向他们灌输在全球市场上取得成功所必需的技能、价值观和广阔的视野，在复杂的多学科项目中发挥领导作用，并终身持续学习。该方法是开发一种能有效吸收宽带电磁波的图像化双曲元膜。研究大面积多层金属介质薄膜，开发具有从光学到热域可调吸收剖面的平面薄膜吸收体，这将创造新的光学/热物理和应用体系。提出的大面积图案双曲元膜将代表我们对慢光芯片吸收/发射工程的理解的重大突破，并有望开发能量转换和热管理器件的新应用。这种非常高折射率的有效介质比低折射率介质拥有更多的态密度，因此具有更大的潜力进行有效的热-光子转换，不幸的是，这不是自然可用的。因此，能够创造一种高折射率的超材料将为各种光子/热应用的革命提供技术基础。

The objective of this research is to explore ultra-broadband on-chip light trapping mechanisms for efficient photon/thermal management, energy harvesting and enhanced heat-to-photon conversion. The promising applications enabled by this work could have enormous long-term impact on our national energy, environmental and sustainability needs. Integrating research with education is a high priority in this interdisciplinary effort, which links nanotechnology, computational electromagnetics, optoelectronics, electrical engineering, and energy research. This program will deliver state-of-the-art nanophotonic technologies to students, and instill in them the skills, values, and broad perspectives necessary for success in the global market place, for leadership in complex, multidisciplinary projects, and for a lifetime of continued learning. The approach is to develop a patterned hyperbolic meta-film that can efficiently absorb broadband electromagnetic waves. Large area multi-layered metal-dielectric films will be investigated to develop a planar thin-film absorber with tunable absorption profile from optical to thermal domain, which will create new regimes of optical/thermal physics and applications. The proposed large area patterned hyperbolic meta-film would represent a major breakthrough in our understanding of absorption/emission engineering of slow-light chips, and holds promise for developing novel applications for energy conversion and thermal management devices. This very high-index effective medium holds much more density of states than low-index media and therefore has greater potential for efficient heat-to-photon conversion, which, unfortunately, is NOT naturally available. Therefore, being able to create a high index metamaterial will provide a technological foundation that will revolutionize a variety of photonic/thermal applications.