Radiative Thermal Runaway Due to Negative-Differential Thermal Emission Across a Solid-Solid Phase Transition
Name
PhysRevApplied.10.021001.pdf
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781.83 KB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Lenert, Andrej
Kats, Mikhail A.
Zhou, You
Zhang, Shuyan
Ramanathan, Shriram
Capasso, Federico
Bierman, David Matthew
De La Ossa, Matthew F.
Wang, Evelyn
Date Issued
August 2018
Journal
Physical Review Applied
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Bierman, David M. et al. "Radiative Thermal Runaway Due to Negative-Differential Thermal Emission Across a Solid-Solid Phase Transition." Physical Review Applied 10, 2 (August 2018): 021001 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Thermal runaway occurs when a rise in system temperature results in heat-generation rates exceeding dissipation rates. Here, we demonstrate that thermal runaway occurs in radiative (photon) systems given a sufficient level of negative-differential thermal emission. By exploiting the insulator-to-metal phase transition of vanadium dioxide, we show that a small increase in heat generation (e.g., 10nW/mm[superscript 2]) results in a large change in surface temperature (e.g., ∼35 K), as the thermal emitter switches from high emittance to low emittance. While thermal runaway is typically associated with catastrophic failure mechanisms, detailed understanding and control of this phenomenon may give rise to new opportunities in infrared sensing, camouflage, and rectification.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.021001
