Nanoplasmonics Mediated Radiative Thermal Transport in Near- and Far-Fields

热辐射在热传递、能量转换、光学光子学、遥感等诸多领域发挥着重要作用。当以辐射交换能量的物体之间的间隙很小时，辐射传热就会大大增强，超出通常理论所预测的范围。本研究将极大地促进对纳米尺度热辐射的基本认识，并促进热辐射控制新技术的发展。该项目通过向K-12学生和公众开展各种外展活动以及传播模拟工具，将研究和教育结合起来。在纳米尺度上直接计算热辐射的多个开源代码将被开发和传播。教育重点是匹兹堡地区服务不足的高中生和卡内基梅隆大学的本科生和研究生。通过在宾夕法尼亚州举办的各种研讨会，将有更多的科学和工程领域的积极学者参与。该项目的主要目标是基于自下而上的方法，利用单个相干纳米发射器作为基本元素来控制热辐射的极端光谱和方向特征。本文深入研究了纳米发射器独特的热发射特性，并以纳米发射器为基础构建了一种新型的宏观完美热发射表面，该表面可以在近场和远场模式下工作。目的是发展一种新的理论来理解任意纳米级等离子体结构的热辐射的基本限制。纳米级等离子体结构阵列在近场和远场的整体热辐射也将被研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Thermal radiation plays an important role in many fields, such as heat transfer, energy conversion, optics and photonics, and remote sensing. When the gap size between objects exchanging energy by radiation is very small, the radiative heat transfer can be dramatically enhanced beyond what is usually predicted by theory. The proposed research will significantly advance the basic understanding of thermal emission at the nanoscale and facilitate the development of new techniques for controlling thermal radiation. This project integrates research and education via various outreach activities to K-12 students and general public as well as dissemination of simulation tools. Multiple open-source codes for directly calculating thermal radiation at the nanoscale is to be developed and disseminated. The educational focus is underserved high school students in the Pittsburgh area and undergraduate and graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University. A broader community of motivated scholars in science and engineering will be reached through various workshops held in Pennsylvania. The main objective of this project is to control the extreme spectral and directional characteristics of thermal radiation based on a bottom-up method using individual coherent nanoemitters as fundamental elements. The current effort delves deeply into the unique thermal emission properties of a nanoemitter, and utilizes the nanoemitters as basic building blocks to create a new type of macroscopic perfect thermal emitting surface, which can work in both near- and far-field modes. The aim is to develop a new theory to understand the fundamental limit of thermal emission from an arbitrary nanoscale plasmonic structure. The overall thermal radiation from arrays of nanoscale plasmonic structures in both near- and far-fields will also be studied.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.