Near-field thermal upconversion and energy transfer through a Kerr medium

Khandekar, Chinmay; Rodríguez, Alejandro W.

doi:10.1364/oe.25.023164

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Modern thermal photonics utilizes fluctuational electrodynamic paradigm to explore new phenomena (near-field radiative heat transfer [70]) and new regimes (nonreciprocity [23], nonlinearities [71] and nonequilibrium [72]) which are inaccessible to older paradigm of radiometry and Kirchhoff's laws. And yet, thermal spin photonics is so far limited to inquiries based on Kirchhoff's laws [7][8][9].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal spin photonics in the near-field of nonreciprocal media

Khandekar

Jacob

2019

New J. Phys.

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The interplay of spin angular momentum and thermal radiation is a frontier area of interest to nanophotonics as well as topological physics. Here, we show that a thick planar slab of a nonreciprocal material, despite being at thermal equilibrium with its environment, can exhibit nonzero photon spin angular momentum and nonzero radiative heat flux in its vicinity. We identify them as the persistent thermal photon spin and the persistent planar heat current respectively. With a practical example system, we reveal that the fundamental origin of these phenomena is connected to the spinmomentum locking of thermally excited evanescent waves. We also discover spin magnetic moment of surface polaritons that further clarifies these features. We then propose an imaging experiment based on Brownian motion that allows one to witness these surprising features by directly looking at them using a lab microscope. We further demonstrate the universal behavior of these near-field thermal radiation phenomena through a comprehensive analysis of gyroelectric, gyromagnetic and magneto-electric nonreciprocal materials. Together, these results expose a surprisingly little explored research area of thermal spin photonics with prospects for new avenues related to non-Hermitian topological photonics and radiative heat transport.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal spin photonics in the near-field of nonreciprocal media

Khandekar

Jacob

2019

New J. Phys.

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“…These include some general questions of noise [65,66], forces for small particles with nonlinear polarizability [67][68][69], or some limited scenarios of nonlinear parallel plates [70][71][72][73]. There have also been studies of thermal radiation in classical nonlinear Langevin models [74,75].…”

Section: Nonlinear Optical Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective on Some Recent and Future Developments in Casimir Interactions

2020

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Here, we present a critical review of recent developments in Casimir physics motivated by discoveries of novel materials. Specifically, topologically nontrivial properties of the graphene family, Chern and topological insulators, and Weyl semimetals have diverse manifestations in the distance dependence, presence of fundamental constants, magnitude, and sign of the Casimir interaction. Limited studies of the role of nonlinear optical properties in the interaction are also reviewed. We show that, since many new materials have greatly enhanced the nonlinear optical response, new efficient pathways for investigation of the characteristic regimes of the Casimir force need to be explored, which are expected to lead to new discoveries. Recent progress in the dynamical Casimir effect is also reviewed and we argue that nonlinear media can open up new directions in this field as well.

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“…Recently, it was pointed out using semi-classical Langevin theory that resonantly enhanced Kerr χ (3) nonlinearities can be harnessed for spectral-engineering thermal radiation [4,5] and near-field radiative heat transport [6,7]. In that context, the problem of thermal radiation from a passive system of coupled resonators of distinct frequencies remained unsolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum nonlinear mixing of thermal photons to surpass the blackbody limit

et al. 2020

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Nearly all thermal radiation phenomena involving materials with linear response can be accurately described via semi-classical theories of light. Here, we go beyond these traditional paradigms to study a nonlinear system which, as we show, necessarily requires quantum theory of damping. Specifically, we analyze thermal radiation from a resonant system containing a χ (2) nonlinear medium and supporting resonances at frequencies ω1 and ω2 ≈ 2ω1, where both resonators are driven only by intrinsic thermal fluctuations. Within our quantum formalism, we reveal new possibilities for shaping the thermal radiation. We show that the resonantly enhanced nonlinear interaction allows frequency-selective enhancement of thermal emission through upconversion, surpassing the well-known blackbody limits associated with linear media. Surprisingly, we also find that the emitted thermal light exhibits non-trivial statistics (g (2) (0) = 2) and biphoton intensity correlations (at two distinct frequencies). We highlight that these features can be observed in the near future by heating a properly designed nonlinear system, without the need for any external signal. Our work motivates new interdisciplinary inquiries combining the fields of nonlinear photonics, quantum optics and thermal science.

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Near-field thermal upconversion and energy transfer through a Kerr medium

Cited by 17 publications

References 56 publications

Thermal spin photonics in the near-field of nonreciprocal media

Thermal spin photonics in the near-field of nonreciprocal media

Perspective on Some Recent and Future Developments in Casimir Interactions

Quantum nonlinear mixing of thermal photons to surpass the blackbody limit

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