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  • Nanophotonic control of thermal emission under extreme temperatures in air

    work
    Creator:
    McSherry, Sean
    Description:
    This repository includes the analysis code and raw data for a paper titled "Nanophotonic control of thermal emission under extreme temperatures in air, " in Nature Nanotechnology (see citation). In our work, well defined structure-color effects guided the design of a nanostructure containing stratified layers of two oxides, magnesium oxide (MgO) and barium zirco-hafnate (BaZr0.5Hf0.5O3 or BZHO). The repeating layers were tuned in such a way to manipulate incident infrared wavelengths. The infrared is the spectral range in which heat (in the form of electromagnetic radiation) is emitted from objects. Therefore, the nanostructure serves as a way to alter the thermal emission spectrum of hot objects, controlling how much heat can flow. This can have significant impacts on a range of technologies, such as thermal photovoltaics (TPVs), which generate electricity from the infrared light emission of hot objects (compared to visible light emission from the sun in solar photovoltaics). We envision that our MgO/BZHO nanostructure can be paired with a thermal emitter in TPV systems to beneficially manipulate the flow of infrared light, leading to more efficient electricity production. To characterize the thermal stability of this structure, we had to characterize the thermal stability and optical performance at room temperature and at 1100 °C. This lead us to conduct several experiments using ellipsometry, TEM, EDS, and FTIR.
    Keyword:
    FTIR, Infrared, Photonic Crystal, MgO, Refractory , Ellipsometry, Spectroscopy, Superlattice, and Thermal Emission
    Citation to related publication:
    McSherry et al. Nature Nanotechnology (In Press). 2022
    Discipline:
    Engineering