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Spectrally and Spatially Selective Emitters Using Polymer Hybrid Spoof Plasmonics
Gil Ju Lee1, Do Hyeon Kim1, Se-Yeon Heo1
1School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju 61005, Republic of Korea.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
|November 11, 2020
Summary
Researchers developed simple, affordable hybrid thermal emitters (HTEs) using spoof surface plasmons. These engineered emitters offer precise control over infrared emission for advanced sensing and cooling applications.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Nanotechnology
- Infrared Spectroscopy
- Materials Science
Background:
- Optical resonances enable optimized thermal emitters for applications like IR sensing, thermal imaging, and radiative cooling.
- Current methods for tailored infrared emission often involve complex nanostructures, leading to high production costs.
- Achieving both spectrally and spatially selective emission typically requires intricate designs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a simple and affordable method for creating hybrid thermal emitters (HTEs) with spatially and spectrally selective emission.
- To explore the use of spoof surface plasmons in microscaled silver grooves within polymer layers for infrared emission control.
- To demonstrate the potential of these HTEs in applications such as infrared data encoding and radiative cooling.
Main Methods:
- Utilized spoof surface plasmons generated by microscaled silver grooves embedded in polymer layers.
- Conducted theoretical analyses to understand and tune emission properties within the long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectrum (8-14 μm).
- Performed computational parametric studies to optimize structural parameters for selective emission and fabricated devices based on these parameters.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that polymer hybrid plasmonics allow emission tuning, with spatially selective peaks at the interface of silver grooves and IR-transparent layers.
- Achieved near-unity spectrally selective emission by optimizing the emissivity of a thin IR-opaque layer.
- Successfully fabricated and tested two HTEs, showcasing their utility in infrared data encoding/decoding and radiative cooling.
Conclusions:
- The developed approach offers a cost-effective and straightforward route to spatially and spectrally selective hybrid thermal emitters.
- These HTEs exhibit tunable infrared emission properties suitable for diverse applications.
- The findings open new possibilities for tailored infrared emission using polymer-based plasmonic structures.
