Characterization of Near-Field Thermal Radiative Properties of Man-Made Materials

在非常小的（纳米）尺度上设计的人造材料已经被提出用于热辐射应用。这些材料的辐射特性已在理论上使用精确或近似的方法进行了研究。然而，这些理论预测从未得到实验验证。本项目的目的是实验证明，新的热辐射性能可以实现使用人造材料，如超材料，光栅和光子晶体。设计热辐射的能力将导致能源转换和节能方面的技术突破，并将大大加快热辐射应用的发展，例如使用纳米间隙热光伏器件的废热回收和纳米级的热管理。这将有利于社会减少化石燃料的消耗，从而保护我们有限的能源资源和环境。本项目的目的是测试的假设，近场热辐射的光谱可以调整使用人造材料，在亚波长尺度上设计。这一假设将通过测量各种人造结构的近场热发射光谱来检验。测量的光谱将与理论预测进行比较，它们将用于验证和调整理论模型。这项研究将有助于知识和技术在纳米级辐射传热领域的进步在几个方面。它将通过实验证明，可调谐近场热辐射可以实现使用人造材料。将建立一个强大的技术来测量近场热发射光谱。该项目将提供对人造材料近场热发射机制的物理洞察，并有助于建立理论模型，加速具有新辐射特性的材料的设计和发现。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Man-made materials that are engineered at the very small (nanometer) scale have been proposed for thermal radiation applications. The radiative properties of these materials have been studied theoretically using exact or approximate methods. However, these theoretical predictions have never been experimentally verified. The objective of this project is to experimentally demonstrate that novel thermal radiative properties can be achieved using man-made materials such as metamaterials, gratings, and photonic crystals. The ability to engineer thermal radiation will lead to technological breakthroughs in energy conversion and conservation, and will significantly accelerate the development of thermal radiation applications such as waste heat recovery using nano-gap thermophotovoltaic devices and thermal management at the nanoscale. This will benefit the society by reducing consumption of fossil fuels and thus conserving our limited energy resources and the environment.The objective of this project is to test the hypothesis that the spectrum of near-field thermal radiation can be tuned using man-made materials that are engineered at the sub-wavelength scale. This hypothesis will be tested by measuring the spectrum of near-field thermal emission from a variety of man-made structures. The measured spectra will be compared with theoretical predictions, and they will be used for validating and tuning the theoretical models. This research will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and technology in the field of nanoscale radiative heat transfer in several ways. It will be experimentally demonstrated that tunable near-field thermal radiation can be achieved using man-made materials. A robust technique will be established for measuring the spectrum of near-field thermal emission. This project will provide physical insight into the mechanisms of near-field thermal emission by man-made materials, and it will help to establish theoretical models that accelerate design and discovery of materials with novel radiative properties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.