Near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterial thin films.

We investigate near-field radiative heat transfer between two thin films made of metamaterials. The impact of film thickness on magnetic and electric surface polaritons (ESPs) is analyzed. It is found that the strength as well as the location of magnetic resonance does not change with film thickness until the film behaves as semi-infinite for the dielectric function chosen in this study. When the film is thinner than vacuum gap, both electric and magnetic polaritons contribute evenly to near-field radiative heat transfer. At larger film thicknesses, ESPs dominate heat transfer due to excitation of a larger number of modes. Results obtained from this study will facilitate applications of metamaterials as thin-film coatings for energy systems.

Electric and magnetic surface polariton mediated near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterials made of silicon carbide particles.

Near-field radiative heat transfer between isotropic, dielectric-based metamaterials is analyzed. A potassium bromide host medium comprised of silicon carbide (SiC) spheres with a volume filling fraction of 0.4 is considered for the metamaterial. The relative electric permittivity and relative magnetic permeability of the metamaterial are modeled via the Clausius-Mossotti relations linking the macroscopic response of the medium with the polarizabilities of the spheres. We show for the first time that electric and magnetic surface polariton (SP) mediated near-field radiative heat transfer occurs between dielectric-based structures. Magnetic SPs, existing in TE polarization, are physically due to strong magnetic dipole resonances of the spheres. We find that spherical inclusions with radii of 1 µm (or greater) are needed in order to induce SPs in TE polarization. On the other hand, electric SPs existing in TM polarization are generated by surface modes of the spheres, and are thus almost insensitive to the size of the inclusions. We estimate that the total heat flux around SP resonance for the metamaterial comprised of SiC spheres with radii of 1 µm is about 35% greater than the flux predicted between two bulks of SiC, where only surface phonon-polaritons in TM polarization are excited. The results presented in this work show that the near-field thermal spectrum can be engineered via dielectric-based metamaterials, which is crucial in many emerging technologies, such as in nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic power generation.

Time-resolved optical tomography using short-pulse laser for tumor detection.

Our objective is to perform a comprehensive experimental and numerical analysis of the short-pulse laser interaction with a tissue medium with the goal of tumor-cancer diagnostics. For a short-pulse laser source, the shape of the output signal is a function of the optical properties of the medium, and hence the scattered temporal optical signal helps in understanding the medium characteristics. Initially experiments are performed on tissue phantoms embedded with inhomogeneities to optimize the time-resolved optical detection scheme. Both the temporal and the spatial profiles of the scattered reflected and transmitted optical signals are compared with the numerical modeling results obtained by solving the transient radiative transport equation using the discrete ordinates technique. Next experiments are performed on in vitro rat tissue samples to characterize the interaction of light with skin layers and to validate the time-varying optical signatures with the numerical model. The numerical modeling results and the experimental measurements are in excellent agreement for the different parameters studied. The final step is to perform in vivo imaging of anesthetized rats with tumor-promoting agents injected inside skin tissues and of an anesthetized mouse with mammary tumors to demonstrate the feasibility of the technique for detecting tumors in an animal model.