T Operator Bounds on Angle-Integrated Absorption and Thermal Radiation for Arbitrary Objects

Sean Molesky, Weiliang Jin, Prashanth S. Venkataram, Alejandro W. Rodriguez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

We derive fundamental per-channel bounds on angle-integrated absorption and thermal radiation for arbitrarily structured bodies - for any given material susceptibility and bounding region - that simultaneously encode both the per-volume limit on polarization set by passivity and geometric constraints on radiative efficiencies set by finite object sizes through the scattering T operator. We then analyze these bounds in two practical settings, comparing against prior limits as well as near optimal structures discovered through topology optimization. Principally, we show that the bounds properly capture the physically observed transition from the volume scaling of absorptivity seen in deeply subwavelength objects (nanoparticle radius or thin film thickness) to the area scaling of absorptivity seen in ray optics (blackbody limits).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number257401
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume123
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 20 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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