MESH: A free electromagnetic solver for far-field and near-field radiative heat transfer for layered periodic structures

Chen, Kaifeng; Zhao, Bo; Fan, Shanhui

doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2018.04.032

Cited by 42 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Investigation of these structures, requires utmost accuracy and attention to the details, particularly at nano-scale dimensions, in order to be able to account for all the edge effects and irregularities. For this, effective medium theory-based solutions such as RCWA or MESH 49 cannot be used for accurate predictions. We need to consider methodologies that not only do not oversimplify these structures, but also are capable of taking into account all the fine nano-scale details.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A biomimicry design for nanoscale radiative cooling applications inspired by Morpho didius butterfly

Didari

Mengüç

2018

Sci Rep

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In nature, novel colors and patterns have evolved in various species for survival, recognizability or mating purposes. Investigations of the morphology of various butterfly wings have shown that in addition to the pigmentation, micro and nanostructures within the wings have also allowed better communication systems and the pheromone-producing organs which are the main regulators of the temperature within butterfly wings. Within the blue spectrum (450–495 nm), Morpho didius butterfly exhibit iridescence in their structure-based wings’ color. Inspired by the rich physics behind this concept, we present a designer metamaterial system that has the potential to be used for near-field radiative cooling applications. This biomimicry design involves SiC palm tree-like structures placed in close proximity of a thin film in a vacuum environment separated by nanoscale gaps. The near-field energy exchange is enhanced significantly by decreasing the dimensions of the tree and rotating the free-standing structure by 90 degrees clockwise and bringing it to the close proximity of a second thin film. This exchange is calculated by using newly developed near-field radiative transfer finite difference time domain (NF-RT-FDTD) algorithm. Several orders of enhancement of near-field heat flux within the infrared atmospheric window (8–13 μm bandwidth) are achieved. This spectrally selective enhancement is associated with the geometric variations, the spatial location of the source of excitation and the material characteristics, and can be tuned to tailor strong radiative cooling mechanisms.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A biomimicry design for nanoscale radiative cooling applications inspired by Morpho didius butterfly

Didari

Mengüç

2018

Sci Rep

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“…As a benchmark for evaluating the accuracy of the blackbody model introduced above, we perform exact calculations of near-field heat transfer via fluctuational electrodynamics, following the original formalism in [29] that is based on Fresnel's coefficients for layered media, computed here via [32]. In Fig.…”

Section: Near-field Tpv Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…15, suffices. In practice, β max,NR can be approximated by searching for the value of β for which ξ(ω, β), obtained via fluctuational electrodynamics using, for example, Fresnel's equations or a computational package like [32], is maximized. In Fig.…”

Section: Near-field Tpv Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics of light management in near-field thermophotovoltaics

Papadakis¹,

Orenstein²,

Yablonovitch³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We evaluate near-field thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy conversion systems focusing in particular on their open-circuit voltage (Voc). Unlike previous analyses based largely on numerical simulations with fluctuational electrodynamics, here, we develop an analytic model that captures the physics of near-field TPV systems and can predict their performance metrics. Using our model, we identify two important opportunities of TPV systems operating in the near-field. First, we show analytically that enhancement of radiative recombination is a natural consequence of operating in the nearfield. Second, we note that, owing to photon recycling and minimal radiation leakage in near-field operation, the PV cell used in near-field TPV systems can be much thinner compared to those used in solar PV systems. Since non-radiative recombination is a volumetric effect, use of a thinner cell reduces non-radiative losses per unit area. The combination of these two opportunities leads to increasingly large values of Voc as the TPV vacuum gap decreases. Hence, although operation in the near-field was previously perceived to be beneficial for electrical power density enhancement, here, we emphasize that thin-film near-field TPVs are also significantly advantageous in terms of Voc and consequently conversion efficiency as well as power density. We provide numerical results for an InAs-based thin-film TPV that exhibits efficiency > 50% at an emitter temperature as low as 1100 K.

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“…To perform calculations of thermal emission and absorption, we extend the formalism of radiative heat transfer [25,26] to include time-varying dielectric functions. This formalism combines rigorous coupled wave analysis [27,28] with the fluctuation-dissipation theorem [29] to compute thermal emission for spatio-temporally modulated layered structures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our system, the modulated layer does not have loss and hence by itself does not generate thermal radiation. For the lossy layer, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem has the form [26]…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Photonic Refrigeration from Time-Modulated Thermal Emission

Buddhiraju

Fan

2020

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Active photonic cooling is of significant importance to realize robust, compact, vibration-free, allsolid-state refrigeration. Currently proposed photonic cooling approaches are based on luminescence and impose stringent requirements on luminescence efficiency. We propose a new photonic cooling mechanism arising from temporal modulation of thermal emission. We show that this mechanism has a high thermodynamic performance that can approach the Carnot limit and yet does not rely on luminescence. Further, our work opens exciting new avenues in active, time-modulated control of thermal emission for cooling and energy harvesting applications.

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MESH: A free electromagnetic solver for far-field and near-field radiative heat transfer for layered periodic structures

Cited by 42 publications

References 31 publications

A biomimicry design for nanoscale radiative cooling applications inspired by Morpho didius butterfly

A biomimicry design for nanoscale radiative cooling applications inspired by Morpho didius butterfly

Thermodynamics of light management in near-field thermophotovoltaics

Photonic Refrigeration from Time-Modulated Thermal Emission

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