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Abstract With chemical stability under high temperatures, dielectric materials can be idealized thermal emitters for different energy applications. However, dielectric materials do not support surface waves at near-infrared ranges for longer-distance thermal photon tunneling, which limits their applications in near-field thermal radiation. It is demonstrated in this study that thermal field amplification at near-infrared wavelengths at dielectric surfaces could be achieved through asymmetric Fabry–Perot resonance with anti-reflection coatings or 1D photonic crystal type structures. ⩾100 nm near-infrared thermal photon tunneling can be achieved when these thin film structures are added to the emitter and the collector surfaces. Among these two thin film structures, 1D photonic crystal type periodic structures constructed with the same high refractive index material as the emitter/collector material allow near-field thermal photon tunneling at large parallel wavenumbers. Moreover, the field amplification can be increased by adding more 1D photonic crystal layers to achieve even longer distances near field thermal photon tunneling.
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Characterization of the optical and electronic properties of chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymer thin films
Chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymers (CHIPs) are a new class of optical polymeric materials for imaging and photonic applications due to their high refractive indices and high optical transmission at visible and infrared wavelengths. In this study, we characterize these polymers to study the refractive index and delve into the electronic properties by way of measurements of their dielectric constants. Ellipsometry is used to determine the refractive indices for wavelengths from 500 nm to 12 µm, while we use capacitance measurements on thin film capacitors with a range of areas to find the dielectric constant. The results are in line with expectations based on the sulfur composition of the polymers-indices range from 1.7 to 1.85, and dielectric constants range from 2.6 to 3. With these measurements, these sulfur polymer materials are established to be good candidates for optical and photonic applications, particularly with respect to telecommunications. The dielectric constants suggest that applications such as electro-optic devices and capacitors may also be viable.
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- PAR ID:
- 10465456
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optical Materials Express
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2159-3930
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2737
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.499063
