Selective Radiative Heating of Nanostructures Using Hyperbolic Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that hyperbolic metamaterials can be used to selectively heat nanostructures by controlling plasmonic resonances, enabling targeted thermal management at the nanoscale.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel annular hyperbolic metamaterial design that enables selective radiative heating of nanowires through mode-matching of plasmonic resonances.

Findings

Selective heating achieved via mode matching.

Nanowire appears dark unless resonances are matched.

Potential applications in thermal management.

Abstract

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM) are of great interest due to their ability to break the diffraction limit for imaging and enhance near-field radiative heat transfer. Here we demonstrate that an annular, transparent HMM enables selective heating of a sub-wavelength plasmonic nanowire by controlling the angular mode number of a plasmonic resonance. A nanowire emitter, surrounded by an HMM, appears dark to incoming radiation from an adjacent nanowire emitter unless the second emitter is surrounded by an identical lens such that the wavelength and angular mode of the plasmonic resonance match. Our result can find applications in radiative thermal management.