We report the observation of unusual thermal radiation at elevated temperatures (T=400-900K) from a three-dimensional metallic photonic-crystal composite that includes a micro-cavity. Upon thermal excitation by a heating element of a large heat-mass and a constant temperature (heat bath), its emissive power at resonant wavelengths exceeds a blackbody’s at nominally the same surface temperature. The possible explanations include, but are not limited to, angular concentration of light emission, slightly lower lattice-temperature for a reference blackbody and also a significant pumping of hot electrons at resonance such that our sample’s electron-temperature is higher than its latticetemperature.

Date Published: 12 September 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9162, Active Photonic Materials VI, 91621H (12 September 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2060757

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9162:
Active Photonic Materials VI
Ganapathi S. Subramania; Stavroula Foteinopoulou, Editor(s)