Heat and Light Get Larger at the Nanoscale
April 15, 2016 | Columbia EngineeringEstimated reading time: 4 minutes
“An important implication of our work is that thermal radiation can now be used as a dominant heat transfer mechanism between objects at different temperatures,” explains Raphael St-Gelais, the study’s lead author and postdoctoral fellow working with Lipson at Columbia Engineering. “This means that we can control heat flow with a lot of the same techniques we have for manipulating light. This is a big deal since there are a lot of interesting things we can do with light, such as converting it to electricity using photovoltaic cells."
St-Gelais and Linxiao Zhu, who co-authored the study and is a PhD candidate in Fan’s group at Stanford, note that the team’s approach can be scaled up to a larger effective area by simply arraying several nanobeams—on top of a photovoltaic cell, for example—and by individually controlling their out-of-plane displacement using MEMS actuators. The researchers are now looking at applying their same approach for ultra-high-precision displacement control, this time with an actual photovoltaic cell to generate electricity directly from heat.
“This very strong, non-contact, heat transfer channel could be used for controlling the temperature of delicate nano devices that cannot be touched, or for very efficiently converting heat to electricity by radiating large amounts of heat from a hot object to a photovoltaic cell in its extreme proximity,” Lipson adds. “And if we can shine a large amount of heat in the form of light from a hot object to a photovoltaic cell, we could potentially create compact modules for direct conversion of heat to electrical power. These modules could be used inside cars, for instance, to convert wasted heat from the combustion engine back to useful electrical power. We could also use them in our homes to generate electricity from alternative energy sources such as biofuels and stored solar energy.”
The work received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for award FA8650-14-1-7406 as well as additional support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec−Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Page 2 of 2Suggested Items
Physicists Create Optical Component for 6G
05/20/2024 | SkoltechA joint team of physicists from Skoltech, MIPT, and ITMO developed an optical component that helps manage the properties of a terahertz beam and split it into several channels.
High Density Packaging User Group Announces Shenzhen Kinwong Electronic Co., Ltd. Membership
05/20/2024 | High Density Packaging User GroupHigh Density Packaging User Group (HDP) is pleased to announce that Shenzhen Kinwong Electronic Co., Ltd. (Kinwong) has become a member.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Precision Tools and Problem-solving With Perfect Point
05/14/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOIn an interview with Guest Editor Dan Beaulieu, Alex Girardot, a field applications engineer with Perfect Point, shares his experiences with precision tooling. Alex also discusses a challenging project involving thick boards and small diameter holes in which Carbonite tools with a hybrid design were used. They also discuss the trend toward smaller hole sizes.
epoxySet Launches EC-1015HP - High Temperature, Crack Resistant Epoxy Potting
05/13/2024 | epoxySetepoxySet introduces the EC-1015HP epoxy potting compound. This heat cure system is designed for temperature cycling from -55 to 180°C with significantly better crack resistance than traditional rigid epoxies. As a low viscosity encapsulant, it is used for large and small potting applications with fragile components.
D Coupon Testing and Data Insights With GreenSource Fabrication
04/17/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineMarcy LaRont spoke with Steve Karas of GreenSource Fabrication at the SMTA UHDI conference in March. He presented a case study that GreenSource undertook with a customer on critical via reliability with advanced materials and used the experience to highlight the importance and effectiveness of D coupon testing. He also discussed GreenSource’s approach to data aggregation and a new system they developed to use collected data effectively.