Observation of Strong Nonreciprocal Thermal Emission

1 min read Original article ↗

The Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation stating the equivalence of emissivity and absorptivity at the same wavelength, angle, and polarization, has completely constrained emission and absorption processes. Achieving strong nonreciprocal emission points to fundamental advances for applications such as energy harvesting, heat transfer, and sensing, but strong nonreciprocal thermal emission has not been experimentally realized. Here, we observe strong nonreciprocal thermal emission using a custom-designed angle-resolved magnetic thermal emission spectroscopy and an epitaxially-transferred gradient-doped metamaterial. We show that under magnetic field, the metamaterial strongly breaks the Kirchhoff’s law, with a difference between emissivity and absorptivity at the same wavelength and angle reaching as high as 0.43. Significant nonreciprocal emission persists over broad spectral and angular ranges. The demonstration of strong nonreciprocal thermal emission and the approach can be useful for systematic exploration of nonreciprocal thermal photonics for thermal management, infrared camouflage, and energy conversion.  more » « less

Award ID(s):
2238927
PAR ID:
10626678
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Physical Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Volume:
135
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0031-9007
Page Range / eLocation ID:
016901
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation