ISSN Online: 2377-424X
International Heat Transfer Conference 12
Design of coherent thermal sources of radiation
Sinopsis
We show that is possible to design coherent thermal sources of infrared light by ruling a
grating on a plane surface of a polar material such as glass, SiC or III-V and II-VI
semiconductors. Two types of sources with unusual properties are presented. Firstly, we have
fabricated a thermal source whose spectrum is quasi-monochromatic and depends on the
direction of observation, and whose emission at a given frequence is highly directional. This
thermal source exhibits a high degree of temporal and spatial coherence. Secondly, we have
designed partially coherent sources which radiate with a quasi-monochromatic spectrum for
all angles in a plane perpendicular to the grooves. These results show that thermal emission of
light by surfaces may be controlled in order to produce new types of infrared sources.