Nanoplasmon-enabled macroscopic thermal management

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantitative thermal imaging method to demonstrate that nanoplasmonic structures can significantly increase macroscopic temperature, highlighting their potential for energy harvesting and thermal management applications.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of plasmon-enabled macroscopic heating and a method to quantify light capture by nanoplasmonic layers.

Findings

Nanoplasmonic structures can heat large areas with minimal surface coverage.

Homogeneous heating of several degrees achieved with only 8% surface coverage.

The method enables better design of plasmonic materials for thermal applications.

Abstract

In numerous applications of energy harvesting via transformation of light into heat the focus recently shifted towards highly absorptive materials featuring nanoplasmons. It is currently established that noble metals-based absorptive plasmonic platforms deliver significant light-capturing capability and can be viewed as super-absorbers of optical radiation. However, direct experimental evidence of plasmon-enabled macroscopic temperature increase that would result from these efficient absorptive properties is scarce. Here we derive a general quantitative method of characterizing light-capturing properties of a given heat-generating absorptive layer by macroscopic thermal imaging. We further monitor macroscopic areas that are homogeneously heated by several degrees with plasmon nanostructures that occupy a mere 8% of the surface, leaving it essentially transparent and evidencing significant heat generation capability of nanoplasmon-enabled light capture. This has a direct bearing to thermophotovoltaics and other applications where thermal management is crucial.