Broadband super-Planckian thermal emission from hyperbolic metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that hyperbolic metamaterials can produce broadband thermal emission exceeding black body limits in the near field, enabled by unique bulk modes, opening new avenues for thermal emission engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a fluctuational electrodynamics framework for hyperbolic metamaterials and predicts broadband super-Planckian thermal emission due to bulk modes.

Findings

Broadband near-field thermal emission surpassing black body limit.

Thermal excitation of unique bulk modes in hyperbolic metamaterials.

Potential for practical realization and thermal emission engineering.

Abstract

We develop the fluctuational electrodynamics of metamaterials with hyperbolic dispersion and show the existence of broadband thermal emission beyond the black body limit in the near field. This arises due to the thermal excitation of unique bulk metamaterial modes, which do not occur in conventional media. We consider a practical realization of the hyperbolic metamaterial and estimate that the effect will be observable using the characteristic dispersion (topological transitions) of the metamaterial states. Our work paves the way for engineering the near-field thermal emission using metamaterials.