Zhong Yibai, Liu Xiu, Wang Zexiao, Huang Tianyi, Zou Jingyi, Lin Sen, Luo Xiao, Li Zhuo, Cheng Rui, Zhang Xu, Shen Sheng
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
Nano Lett. 2025 Aug 20;25(33):12712-12718. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c03156. Epub 2025 Aug 7.
Thermal signatures carry unique infrared appearances and spectral fingerprints of objects, but controlling them across spatial, temporal, and spectral domains remains challenging due to thermal emission's slow, diffuse, and broadband emitting nature. We demonstrate a reconfigurable ultrafast thermal metamaterial pixel array integrating active metasurfaces with dual-gate graphene transistors (Gr-FETs). Each pixel's Gr-FETs provide heater-switch dual functionalities: one as a broadband transparent microheater supporting arbitrary metasurface designs for multicolor, narrowband infrared emission with ultrafast modulation speed of minimum 187 kHz, and the other as an electrical switch enabling unified array control without compromising emission intensity. Decoupling thermal generation and emission design processes, our approach provides unprecedented programming flexibility across space, time, and wavelength. Our fabricated array experimentally demonstrated 26 alphabetical letters through progressive scanning, paving the way for universal thermal signature control in advanced thermal-infrared applications.
热特征携带物体独特的红外外观和光谱指纹，但由于热发射具有缓慢、漫射和宽带发射的特性，在空间、时间和光谱域对其进行控制仍然具有挑战性。我们展示了一种可重构的超快热超材料像素阵列，它将有源超表面与双栅石墨烯晶体管（Gr-FET）集成在一起。每个像素的Gr-FET提供加热器-开关双重功能：一个作为宽带透明微加热器，支持用于多色、窄带红外发射的任意超表面设计，具有至少187 kHz的超快调制速度，另一个作为电开关，能够实现统一的阵列控制而不影响发射强度。我们的方法将热产生和发射设计过程解耦，在空间、时间和波长上提供了前所未有的编程灵活性。我们制造的阵列通过逐行扫描实验展示了26个字母，为先进热红外应用中的通用热特征控制铺平了道路。
