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Title: Doping-tunable thermal emission from plasmon polaritons in semiconductor epsilon-near-zero thin films

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896573· OSTI ID:22350779
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)
  2. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

We utilize the unique dispersion properties of leaky plasmon polaritons in epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) thin films to demonstrate thermal radiation control. Owing to its highly flat dispersion above the light line, a thermally excited leaky wave at the ENZ frequency out-couples into free space without any scattering structures, resulting in a narrowband, wide-angle, p-polarized thermal emission spectrum. We demonstrate this idea by measuring angle- and polarization-resolved thermal emission spectra from a single layer of unpatterned, doped semiconductors with deep-subwavelength film thickness (d/λ{sub 0} ∼ 6×10{sup −3}, where d is the film thickness and  λ{sub 0} is the free space wavelength). We show that this semiconductor ENZ film effectively works as a leaky wave thermal radiation antenna, which generates far-field radiation from a thermally excited mode. The use of semiconductors makes the radiation frequency highly tunable by controlling doping densities and also facilitates device integration with other components. Therefore, this leaky plasmon polariton emission from semiconductor ENZ films provides an avenue for on-chip control of thermal radiation.

OSTI ID:
22350779
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English