Microgap thermophotovoltaic systems with low emission temperature and high electric output

We theoretically show that a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system enhanced by a wire metamaterial opens the door to a prospective microgap thermophotovoltaics which will combine high electric output with relatively low temperatures of the emitter. The suggested system comprises an array of parallel metal nanowires grown on top of a photovoltaic semiconductor and standing free in the vacuum gap between the host dielectric layer and the emitter, so that their ends are sufficiently close to the emitting surface. Due to the resonant near-field coupling between this wire medium and the emitter and due to the optimized layered structure of the whole system, the strongly super-Planckian radiative heat flux of resonant nature is engineered

Metamaterial nanotips

Nanostructured metamaterials, especially arrays of metallic nanoparticles which sustain the excitation of localized plasmon polaritons, provide excellent opportunities to mold the flow of light in the linear regime. We suggest a metamaterial structure whose properties are determined not only by its inner geometry but also by its entire shape. We call this structure a \emph{metamaterial nanotip}. We evaluate the potential of this nanotip to control the size and the location of the field enhancement. Two-dimensional implementations of this metamaterial nanotip were comprehensively numerically simulated and confirm the expected, physically distinct regimes of operation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Shadow-free multimers as extreme-performance meta-atoms

We generalize the concept of parity-time symmetric structures with the goal to create meta-atoms exhibiting extraordinary abilities to overcome the presumed limitations in the scattering of overall lossless particles, such as non-zero forward scattering and the equality of scattering and extinction powers for all lossless particles. Although the forward scattering amplitude and the extinction cross section of our proposed meta-atoms vanish, they scatter incident energy into other directions, with controllable directionality. These meta-atoms possess extreme electromagnetic properties not achievable for passive scatterers. As an example, we study meta-atoms consisting of two or three small dipole scatters. We consider possible microwave realizations in the form of short dipole antennas loaded by lumped elements. The proposed meta-atom empowers extraordinary response of a shadow-free scatterer and theoretically enables most unusual material properties when used as a building block of an artificial medium.Comment: 14 pages, 9 Figure

Topological phase transition in wire medium enables high Purcell factor at infrared frequencies

In this paper, we study topological phase transition in a wire medium operating at infrared frequencies. This transition occurs in the reciprocal space between the indefinite (open-surface) regime of the metamaterial to its dielectric (closed-surface) regime. Due to the spatial dispersion inherent to wire medium, a hybrid regime turns out to be possible at the transition frequency. Both such surfaces exist at the same frequency and touch one another. At this frequency, all values of the axial wavevector correspond to propagating spatial harmonics. The implication of this regime is the overwhelming radiation enhancement. We numerically investigated the gain in radiated power for a sub-wavelength dipole source submerged into such the medium. In contrast to all previous works, this gain (called the Purcell factor) turns out to be higher for an axial dipole than for a transversal one

On-Site Wireless Power Generation

Conventional wireless power transfer systems consist of a microwave power generator and a microwave power receiver separated by some distance. To realize efficient power transfer, the system is typically brought to resonance, and the coupled-antenna mode is optimized to reduce radiation into the surrounding space. In this scheme, any modification of the receiver position or of its electromagnetic properties results in the necessity of dynamically tuning the whole system to restore the resonant matching condition. It implies poor robustness to the receiver location and load impedance, as well as additional energy consumption in the control network. In this study, we introduce a new paradigm for wireless power delivery based on which the whole system, including transmitter and receiver and the space in between, forms a unified microwave power generator. In our proposed scenario the load itself becomes part of the generator. Microwave oscillations are created directly at the receiver location, eliminating the need for dynamical tuning of the system within the range of the self-oscillation regime. The proposed concept has relevant connections with the recent interest in parity-time symmetric systems, in which balanced loss and gain distributions enable unusual electromagnetic responses.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure