FURI | Spring 2020

Experimental Demonstration of Tunable Near-field Radiative Heat Transfer Exceeding Blackbody Limit with VO2 Thin Films

While near-field radiation exceeding the blackbody limit is a growing topic among researchers today, there is still little research done on how to fully take advantage of this energy. By measuring the near-field radiation between vanadium dioxide, the potential applications of the usage of near-field radiation in thermal circuits was shown. In this work, researchers used heat transfer methods to determine the increased heat flux as a result of near-field radiation. The results of this study show the feasibility of creating more efficient thermal devices by using near-field radiation as the primary means of energy transfer.