Special CPM Seminar

Heat transfer and energy conversion using near-field thermal radiation

Raphaël St-Gelais

Cornell University & Columbia University

Thermal radiation between surfaces separated by deep sub-wavelength distances can overcome the classical far-field radiation limit (i.e., Stefan-Boltzmann law) by several orders of magnitude, while being concentrated on a narrow frequency distribution. These unique characteristics could enable breakthrough technologies for thermal transport control and electricity generation (i.e., by radiating heat exactly at the bandgap frequency of a photovoltaic cell). I will review the physics behind heat transfer in this regime and the exciting new opportunity of near-field thermophotovoltaic electricity generation. I will also present our recent work [1,2] in which we use MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) to precisely control the position of nanostructures, allowing us to achieve the first experimental demonstration of heat transfer in the regime required for near-field thermophotovoltaics (i.e. sub-100 nm separation and large thermal gradient).

[1] Raphael St-Gelais, Linxiao Zhu, Shanhui Fan, and Michal Lipson, “Near-field radiative heat transfer between parallel structures in the deep sub-wavelength regime&rdquo, Accepted in Nature Nanotechnology 2016, ArXiV preprint: http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.08005
[2] Raphael St-Gelais, Biswajeet Guha, Linxiao Zhu, Shanhui Fan, and Michal Lipson, “Demonstration of Strong Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Integrated Nanostructures”, Nano Letters 2014 14 (12), 6971-6975