title: Perfect Thermal Emission by Nanoscale Transmission Line Resonators.
abstract: Thermal radiation with a narrow-band emission spectrum is of great importance in a variety of applications such as infrared sensing, thermophotovoltaics, radiation cooling, and thermal circuits. Although resonant nanophotonic structures such as metamaterials and nanocavities have been demonstrated to achieve the narrow-band thermal emission, maximizing their radiation power toward perfect emission still remains challenging. Here, based on the recently developed quasi-normal mode theory, we prove that thermal emission from a nanoscale transmission line resonator can always be maximized by tuning the waveguiding loss of the resonator or bending the structure. By use of nanoscale transmission line resonators as basic building blocks, we experimentally demonstrate a new type of macroscopic perfect and tunable thermal emitters. Our experimental demonstration in conjunction with the general theoretical framework from the quasi-normal mode theory lays the foundation for designing tunable narrow-band thermal emitters with applications in thermal infrared light sources, thermal management, and infrared sensing and imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Baoan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Bowen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9951-0814
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry; D000537:Aluminum Oxide / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007259:Infrared Rays; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D006046:Gold; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D000535:Aluminum; D000537:Aluminum Oxide
keywords: Thermal radiation; optical resonator; perfect emitter; quasi-normal mode; transmission line