Temporally and Spatially Coherent Emission from Thermal Embedded Eigenstates

Abstract

Thermal emission manipulation is of key importance in numerous applications, yet a number of challenges have prevented its full technical maturation. Efficient mid-and far-infrared sources are valuable for sensing and thermal engineering, yet they are far from matching the sophistication of sources at lower or higher frequencies. Spectrally or spatially narrowband thermal emission has been proposed, partially overcoming the inherent incoherence of thermal processes. However, designing an ideal thermal source with spectral and spatial tailoring of the emission, and enhancing its line width within a small footprint, remains significantly challenging. Here we show how embedded eigenstates in the radiation continuum can be employed to realize compact thermal sources with narrow frequency and spatial spectra of emission, broadening the opportunities for thermal emission manipulation. The proposed concept can be extended to a wide class of thermal emitters, as well as more broadly within the context of thermal management.

Topological scattering singularities and embedded eigenstates for polarization control and sensing applications

“…Although the topological aspects of EE-related phenomena are well understood in periodic systems, there has been little exploration into the topological features of other photonic systems that support EEs. Specifically, EEs arising in structures with singular values of the permittivity, mainly using epsilon-nearzero (ENZ) materials, have been recently studied [38][39][40][41], showing that they enable versatile optical and thermal emission properties [42,43]. However, their topological nature has not been discussed yet, which may further boost their potential in photonic and thermal applications.…”

Low‐Threshold Bound State in the Continuum Lasers in Hybrid Lattice Resonance Metasurfaces

“…[ 33–36 ] Optical BICs have attracted attention not only as resonators for lasing but also as sources of thermal emission. [ 37 ] In particular, low‐threshold lasers are suitable for BIC applications due to their infinite Q ‐factors. On the other hand, plasmonic nanolasers are also potential candidates for low‐threshold lasers.…”

Giant midinfrared nonlinearity based on multiple quantum well polaritonic metasurfaces

“…Moreover, atmospheric transmission windows lie within this same frequency range, offering interesting opportunities for enhanced data transmission and a door for outer space communications [3]. Recently, there have been significant interest in exploring midinfrared metasurfaces for different functionalities, like far-field engineering [4,5] and thermal emission control [6,7]. Of particular interest in some of these implementations has been the integration of suitably engineered multiple quantum well (MQW) materials with tailored intersubband (ISB) midinfrared transitions efficiently coupled to photons through electromagnetic engineering of metasurfaces, leading to strong polaritonic responses over an ultrathin platform.…”