Tuning Topological Transitions in Twisted Thermophotovoltaic Systems
Abstract
Twisted bilayer two-dimensional electronic systems give rise to many exotic phenomena and unveil a new frontier for the study of quantum materials. In photonics, twisted two-dimensional systems coupled via near-field interactions offer a platform to study localization and lasing. Here, we propose that twisting can be an unprecedented tool to tune the performance of near-field thermophotovoltaic systems. Remarkably, through twisting-induced photonic topological transitions, we achieve significant tuning of the thermophotovoltaic energy efficiency and power. The underlying mechanism is related to the change of the photonic iso-frequency contours from elliptical to hyperbolic geometries in a setup where the hexagonal-boron-nitride metasurface serves as the heat source and the indium antimonide - junction serves as the cell. We find a notably high energy efficiency, nearly 53\% of the Carnot efficiency, can be achieved in our thermophotovoltaic system, while the output power can reach to ~W/m without requiring a large temperature difference between the source and the cell. Our results indicate the promising future of twisted near-field thermophotovoltaics and paves the way towards tunable, high-performance thermophotovoltaics and infrared detection.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.07666,
title = {Tuning Topological Transitions in Twisted Thermophotovoltaic Systems},
author = {Rongqian Wang and Jincheng Lu and Xiaohu Wu and Jiebin Peng and Jian-Hua Jiang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.07666},
year = {2022}
}