Advanced nanofabrication of thermal emission devices

Nanofabricated thermal emission devices can be used to modify and modulate blackbody thermal radiation. There are many areas in which altering thermal radiation is extremely useful, especially in static power conversion, lighting and sensor applications. Two specific thermal emission devices which show great promise include resonant thermal emitters and selective thermal emitters. It has been found from theory that resonant thermal emitters exhibit quasi-monochromatic and partially coherent thermal emission when fabricated with a 2-dimensional photonic crystal structure in a high-dielectric low-absorption material such as silicon. This type of fabricated resonant thermal emitter has great potential for use as near-IR and IR sensors. Theory has also shown that selective thermal emitters fabricated in tungsten with a 2-dimensional photonic crystal structure can exhibit spectrally selective thermal emission. This type of fabricated selective thermal emitter can be used to increase the efficiency of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems by preventing the incident thermal radiation below the band-gap of the PV diode from reaching the PV diode. This thesis explores the nanofabrication of a 2-dimensional photonic crystal silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) resonant thermal emitter which is now possible to fabricate due to advances in fabrication technology. Initially, the theory behind the SOS resonant thermal emitter which exhibits multiple resonant emission peaks is discussed. Next, an in-depth examination of the theory behind the technology used in the fabrication the resonant thermal emitter is investigated. Then, the SOS resonant thermal emitter fabrication process and characterization which was performed is discussed. The results showed that it was possible to fabricate the required 2-dimensional pattern but that there were issues with the pattern transfer into silicon, which needs to be further researched.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Hurley, Fergus (Fergus Gerard)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John G. Kassakian and Ivan Čelanović.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44454

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44454