<p>Lorentz reciprocity fundamentally limits the performance of photonic systems by enforcing reciprocal energy exchange between source and detector, which implies a symmetric scattering matrix. In the context of thermal radiation, Lorentz reciprocity manifests as Kirchhoff’s law—the equality of the spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity of a surface. Breaking this reciprocity is important for advancing photonic devices for energy conversion, radiative cooling and mid-infrared sensing and imaging. Here, we report the demonstration of spatiotemporally modulated nonreciprocal metasurfaces operating at mid-infrared frequencies. We design and fabricate a graphene-based integrated photonic structure and experimentally demonstrate nonreciprocal scattering from a metasurface, modulated at gigahertz frequencies. We further develop a theoretical framework to relate nonreciprocal scattering under spatiotemporal modulation with unequal absorptivity and emissivity, indicating a breakdown of the spectral directional version of Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation. Together, our scattering experiments and theory imply effective decoupling of absorption and emission channels by breaking time-reversal symmetry at thermal wavelengths.</p>

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Nonreciprocal scattering and implications for thermal emission control on a mid-infrared spatiotemporally modulated metasurface

  • Anatoly Efimov,
  • Chun-Chieh Chang,
  • Simo Pajovic,
  • Wilton J. M. Kort-Kamp,
  • Dongsung Kim,
  • Hou-Tong Chen,
  • Diego A. R. Dalvit,
  • Abul K. Azad

摘要

Lorentz reciprocity fundamentally limits the performance of photonic systems by enforcing reciprocal energy exchange between source and detector, which implies a symmetric scattering matrix. In the context of thermal radiation, Lorentz reciprocity manifests as Kirchhoff’s law—the equality of the spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity of a surface. Breaking this reciprocity is important for advancing photonic devices for energy conversion, radiative cooling and mid-infrared sensing and imaging. Here, we report the demonstration of spatiotemporally modulated nonreciprocal metasurfaces operating at mid-infrared frequencies. We design and fabricate a graphene-based integrated photonic structure and experimentally demonstrate nonreciprocal scattering from a metasurface, modulated at gigahertz frequencies. We further develop a theoretical framework to relate nonreciprocal scattering under spatiotemporal modulation with unequal absorptivity and emissivity, indicating a breakdown of the spectral directional version of Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation. Together, our scattering experiments and theory imply effective decoupling of absorption and emission channels by breaking time-reversal symmetry at thermal wavelengths.