Passive radiative temperature regulator: principles and absorption-emission manipulation

TL;DR

This paper explores the principles of radiative temperature regulators that can switch between heating and cooling modes by manipulating absorption and emission, addressing key physical limitations for practical implementation.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical framework revealing the fundamental limits of RTRs and proposes feasible device architectures for adaptive radiative temperature regulation.

Findings

Identifies parasitic absorption as a key limiting factor.

Quantifies the relationship between solar heating and radiative cooling.

Proposes design strategies to overcome spectral emission limitations.

Abstract

As a representative device exploiting both the solar energy and the radiative cooling of deep-sky, the radiative temperature regulator (RTR) could switch between heating and cooling modes self-adaptively at different temperatures. However, the concept of RTR is challenging to be implemented due to the intense parasitic absorption in phase-changing layers. Here, based on the theoretical framework of energy conservation, we quantitatively reveal the intrinsic relationships between solar heating and radiative cooling, especially addressing the fundamental limiting factors, including the parasitic absorption and the spectral emission selectivity, as well as the dynamic responses of the phase-changing device under various operating conditions. The investigation presents more insight into the underlying physics of RTRs and provides feasible architectures for realizing such a kind of new functional device.