Radiative Thermal Runaway Due to Negative-Differential Thermal Emission Across a Solid-Solid Phase Transition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Radiative Thermal Runaway Due to Negative-Differential Thermal Emission Across a Solid-Solid Phase Transition

AU - Bierman, David M.

AU - Lenert, Andrej

AU - Kats, Mikhail A.

AU - Zhou, You

AU - Zhang, Shuyan

AU - De La Ossa, Matthew

AU - Ramanathan, Shriram

AU - Capasso, Federico

AU - Wang, Evelyn N.

N1 - Funding Information: This work is supported as part of the Solid-State Solar Thermal Energy Conversion (S3TEC) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under DE-FG02-09ER46577. M.A.K. acknowledges support from the Office of Naval Research (Grant No. N00014-16-1-2556). S.R. acknowledges support from Office of Naval Research (Grant No. N00014-16-1-2398). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 American Physical Society.

PY - 2018/8/3

Y1 - 2018/8/3

N2 - Thermal runaway occurs when a rise in system temperature results in heat-generation rates exceeding dissipation rates. Here, we demonstrate that thermal runaway occurs in radiative (photon) systems given a sufficient level of negative-differential thermal emission. By exploiting the insulator-to-metal phase transition of vanadium dioxide, we show that a small increase in heat generation (e.g., 10nW/mm2) results in a large change in surface temperature (e.g., ∼35 K), as the thermal emitter switches from high emittance to low emittance. While thermal runaway is typically associated with catastrophic failure mechanisms, detailed understanding and control of this phenomenon may give rise to new opportunities in infrared sensing, camouflage, and rectification.

AB - Thermal runaway occurs when a rise in system temperature results in heat-generation rates exceeding dissipation rates. Here, we demonstrate that thermal runaway occurs in radiative (photon) systems given a sufficient level of negative-differential thermal emission. By exploiting the insulator-to-metal phase transition of vanadium dioxide, we show that a small increase in heat generation (e.g., 10nW/mm2) results in a large change in surface temperature (e.g., ∼35 K), as the thermal emitter switches from high emittance to low emittance. While thermal runaway is typically associated with catastrophic failure mechanisms, detailed understanding and control of this phenomenon may give rise to new opportunities in infrared sensing, camouflage, and rectification.

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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.021001

DO - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.021001

M3 - Article

SN - 2331-7019

VL - 10

JO - Physical Review Applied

JF - Physical Review Applied

IS - 2

M1 - 021001

ER -