Twisted Heating-Cooling Transition of Near-field Radiation in Drifted Metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper explores the unconventional near-field radiation behavior between drifted graphene metasurfaces with twist angles, revealing a heat transfer reversal and distance-dependent thermal insulation driven by topological and non-reciprocal effects.

Contribution

It uncovers a twist-induced radiative heat transfer transition and distance-dependent flux behavior in nonequilibrium drifted metasurfaces, highlighting new mechanisms for thermal management.

Findings

Unconventional heat flux from cold to hot in twisted drifted metasurfaces.

Distance-dependent thermal insulation and flux reversal at large twist angles.

Topological and non-reciprocal effects govern the radiation behavior.

Abstract

The magic angle twisted bilayer systems give rise to many exotic phenomena in two-dimensional electronic or photonic platforms. Here, we study the twisted near-field energy radiation between graphene metasurfaces with nonequilibrium drifted Dirac electrons. Anomalously, we find unconventional radiative flux that directs heat from cold to hot. This far-from-equilibrium phenomenon leads to a heating-cooling transition beyond a thermal magic twist angle, facilitated by twist-induced photonic topological transitions. The underlying mechanism is related to the spectrum match and mismatch caused by the cooperation between the non-reciprocal nature of drifted plasmon polaritons and their topological features. Furthermore, we report the unintuitive distance dependence of radiative energy flux under large twist angles. The near-field radiation becomes thermal insulating when increasing to a critical distance, and subsequently reverses the radiative flux to increase the cooling power as the distance increases further. Our results indicate the promising future of nonequilibrium drifted and twisted devices and pave the way towards tunable radiative thermal management.