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ISSN Online: 2377-424X

International Heat Transfer Conference 12
August, 18-23, 2002, Grenoble, France

Design of coherent thermal sources of radiation

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC12.3930
6 pages

Abstract

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.