Extreme near field heat transfer modulation with graphene plasmon resonators

ORAL

Abstract


We present a near-field radiative thermal switch based on thermally excited surface plasmons in graphene resonators. The high tunability of graphene enables substantial modulation of near-field radiative heat transfer. When combined with the use of resonant structures, near field heat transfer overcomes the intrinsically broadband nature of thermal radiation. In canonical geometries, we use nonlinear optimization to show that stacked graphene sheets offer improved heat conductance contrast between “ON” and “OFF” switching states, but that a >10x higher modulation is achieved between isolated graphene resonators than for parallel graphene sheets. In all cases, we find that carrier mobility is a crucial parameter for radiative thermal switching. Furthermore, we discuss shape-agnostic analytical approximations for the resonant heat transfer that provide general scaling laws and allow for direct comparison between different resonator geometries dominated by a single mode. Our scheme is relevant for active thermal management and energy harvesting as well as probing excited state dynamics.

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Presenters

  • Ognjen Ilic

    • California Institute of Technology

Authors

  • Ognjen Ilic

    • California Institute of Technology

  • Nathan Thomas

    • California Institute of Technology

  • Thomas Christensen

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Michelle Sherrott

    • California Institute of Technology

  • Marin Soljacic

    • Physics, MIT
    • MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Austin Minnich

    • California Institute of Technology
    • Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology
    • Caltech
    • Mechanical and Civil Engineering, California Institute of Technology
    • Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
    • Division of Engineering and Applied Science, Caltech

  • Owen Miller

    • Yale University

  • Harry Atwater

    • Caltech
    • Applied Physics and Materials Science, California Institute of Technology
    • California Institute of Technology
    • Thomas J. Watson Laboratory of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology
    • Applied Physics and Material Science, Caltech
    • Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology
    • Applied Physics and Materials Sciences, California Institute of Technology
    • Applied Physics and Material Science, California Institute of Technology