Broadband nonreciprocal thermal emissivity and absorptivity.

Abstract

A body that violates Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation exhibits an inequality in its spectral directional absorptivity and emissivity. Achieving such an inequality is of fundamental interest as well as a prerequisite for achieving thermodynamic limits in photonic energy conversion¹ and radiative cooling². Thus far, inequalities in the spectral directional emissivity and absorptivity have been limited to narrow spectral resonances³, or wavelengths well beyond the infrared regime⁴. Bridging the gap from basic demonstrations to practical applications requires control over a broad spectral range of the unequal spectral directional absorptivity and emissivity. In this work, we demonstrate broadband nonreciprocal thermal emissivity and absorptivity by measuring the thermal emissivity and absorptivity of gradient epsilon-near-zero InAs layers of subwavelength thicknesses (50 nm and 150 nm) with an external magnetic field. The effect occurs in a spectral range (12.5-16 μm) that overlaps with the infrared transparency window and is observed at moderate (1 T) magnetic fields.