Fast Adaptive Thermal Camouflage Based on Flexible VO₂/Graphene/CNT Thin Films

Abstract

Adaptive camouflage in thermal imaging, a form of cloaking technology capable of blending naturally into the surrounding environment, has been a great challenge in the past decades. Emissivity engineering for thermal camouflage is regarded as a more promising way compared to merely temperature controlling that has to dissipate a large amount of excessive heat. However, practical devices with an active modulation of emissivity have yet to be well explored. In this letter we demonstrate an active cloaking device capable of efficient thermal radiance control, which consists of a vanadium dioxide (VO2) layer, with a negative differential thermal emissivity, coated on a graphene/carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film. A slight joule heating drastically changes the emissivity of the device, achieving rapid switchable thermal camouflage with a low power consumption and excellent reliability. It is believed that this device will find wide applications not only in artificial systems for infrared camouflage or cloaking but also in energy-saving smart windows and thermo-optical modulators.

Nanocolumnar Crystalline Vanadium Oxide-Molybdenum Oxide Antireflective Smart Thin Films with Superior Nanomechanical Properties

“…The second is that of a tunable emittance coating for spacecraft thermal control. It is important to mention in this particular context that because of the inherent smart phase transition capability at low temperature the vanadium oxide based materials can offer the IR transparency and at temperatures beyond phase transition temperature the vanadium oxide based materials can offer the IR opaque characteristics7071, thereby justifying possibility of smart radiative surface.…”

Dynamic Thermal Emission Control Based on Ultrathin Plasmonic Metamaterials Including Phase‐Changing Material GST

“…The ability to control thermal emission contributes to a wide range of applications including radiative cooling, thermophotovoltaics, and adaptive camouflage . Plasmonic nanostructures have unique potentials in the control of thermal emission.…”

Highly Stretchable Micro/Nano Wrinkle Structures for Infrared Stealth Application

“…Wei et al [11] proposed a metamaterial-based infrared reflection method by modulating the photo-generated carrier doping. Kocabas et al [12] demonstrate active surfaces structures that can be controlled to tune the reflection, transmission, and absorption of microwaves.…”