Yu Renwen, Fan Shanhui
Department of Electrical Engineering, Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Apr 23;121(17):e2401514121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2401514121. Epub 2024 Apr 19.
Near-field radiative heat transfer has recently attracted increasing interests for its applications in energy technologies, such as thermophotovoltaics. Existing works, however, are restricted to time-independent systems. Here, we explore near-field radiative heat transfer between two bodies under time modulation by developing a rigorous fluctuational electrodynamics formalism. We demonstrate that time modulation can result in the enhancement, suppression, elimination, or reversal of radiative heat flow between the two bodies, and can be used to create a radiative thermal diode with an infinite contrast ratio, as well as a near-field radiative heat engine that pumps heat from the cold to the hot bodies. The formalism reveals a fundamental symmetry relation in the radiative heat transfer coefficients that underlies these effects. Our results indicate the significant capabilities of time modulation for managing nanoscale radiative heat flow.
近场辐射热传递因其在诸如热光伏等能源技术中的应用，近来引起了越来越多的关注。然而，现有的研究工作仅限于与时间无关的系统。在此，我们通过发展一种严格的涨落电动力学形式理论，来探索两个物体在时间调制下的近场辐射热传递。我们证明，时间调制能够导致两物体间辐射热流的增强、抑制、消除或反转，并且可用于制造具有无限对比度的辐射热二极管，以及能将热量从低温物体泵送到高温物体的近场辐射热机。该形式理论揭示了这些效应背后辐射热传递系数中的一个基本对称关系。我们的结果表明时间调制在控制纳米尺度辐射热流方面具有显著能力。
