Quantum materials cloak thermal radiation

Nanowerk  August 11, 2021 For most solids, the thermally emitted power increases monotonically with temperature in a one-to-one relationship that enables applications such as infrared imaging and noncontact thermometry. A team of researchers in the US (University of Wisconsin–Madison, Harvard University, Purdue University, Brookhaven National Laboratory) has demonstrated that ultrathin thermal emitters that violate this one-to-one relationship via the use of samarium nickel oxide (SmNiO3), a strongly correlated quantum material that undergoes a fully reversible, temperature-driven solid-state phase transition. Due to the smooth and hysteresis-free nature of this unique insulator-to-metal phase transition enabled them to engineer the temperature dependence of […]