Radiative energy transport process plays a fundamental role in advanced heat transfer and energy conversion systems. The performance of these systems is subject to the fact that thermal radiation is broadband, and its intensity must be lower than the blackbody limit. On February 24th, Postdoctoral Research Associate from Stanford University Dr. Bo Zhao presented his research on nanophotonic and optoelectronic control of thermal radiation for heat transfer and energy conversion to CALCE researchers and students. 

In this talk, Zhao discussed how nanophotonics and optoelectronics enable us to overcome these constraints and control thermal radiation effectively. Additionally, he showed how to manipulate thermal plasmon and phonon polaritons in nanostructures and 2D materials to control the spectrum of thermal radiation, and how to utilize near-field techniques and optoelectronic approaches to respectively control the density of state and the chemical potential of photons for super-Planckian thermal radiation. He also talked about the applications that can be enabled by controlling the thermal photon transport in heat transfer and energy conversion. 

For more information on this presentation, contact Dr. Diganta Das.