We discuss recent advances in both the fundamental science and technological application of radiative cooling. We will introduce a range of super-white paint-based strategies for daytime radiative cooling materials. We will next discuss a new domain of application for radiative cooling: vertical facades of buildings that experience asymmetric thermal radiative environments, highlighting the remarkable cooling benefits that infrared selective thermal emitters, including low-cost scalable ones made from existing polymers, can enable. Finally, we highlight new work on harnessing radiative cooling for water technologies, including passive freezing desalination as well as near-optimal condensation of dew through the development of multi-functional slippery hydrophilic radiative cooling materials.
Photonic coolers, including both electrically- and laser-driven devices, seek to transport entropy away from a solid body using the photon field. Since more entropy can be carried per unit energy when photon mode occupation is more dilute, cooling is more thermodynamically efficient in this case. We discuss the opportunity for more efficient photonic cooling afforded by the large étendue associated with high index semiconductors and the associated challenge of étendue-matching along the photon extraction optical path. We will discuss both fundamental considerations and constraints imposed by the growth and fabrication of high quantum efficiency light-emitting materials and their substrates.
A fundamental challenge in the design of nanophotonic devices is the optimization of subwavelength structures to achieve tailored and high-performance electromagnetic responses. To this end, topology or shape optimizers based on the adjoint variables method have been widely adopted to push the performance limits of electromagnetic systems. However, the understanding of such freeform structures remain obscure, and such gradient-based optimizers can get trapped in low-performance local minima. Accordingly, to elucidate the relationships between device performance and nanoscale structuring, while mitigating the effects of local minima trapping, we present an inverse design framework that combines adjoint optimization, AutoML, and explainable AI.
KEYWORDS: Long wavelength infrared, Reflectivity, Aluminum, Temperature metrology, Convection, Raman spectroscopy, Silver, Polymers, Infrared radiation, Control systems
We demonstrate a simple, low-cost design of a selectively emissive radiative cooler using scotch tape and aluminum foil, which can be further augmented by higher quality metal deposition methods. This do-it-yourself radiative cooler achieves solar reflectance, long wavelength infrared emittance, and optical selectivity comparable to state-of-the art designs and is experimentally demonstrated as achieving a 7°C subambient temperature drop at night for the aluminized scotch tape and an average 2°C drop under a solar illumination of 965 W / m2 for the silvered scotch tape. In addition, an 11°C subambient temperature drop at night for the aluminized scotch tape was obtained when a convection shield was used. Detailed optical properties are presented for an ultrawide wavelength range and a ∼2π angle of emittance. Given its ease of fabrication and performance, we propose this set of materials as a control for future radiative cooling experiments and an effective radiative cooling accessory for passive cooling designs.
A central challenge in the development of nanophotonic structures and metamaterials is identifying the optimal design for a target functionality and understanding the physical mechanisms that enable the optimized device’s capabilities. In this talk, we will describe deep learning-driven strategies to both design complex nanophotonic structures, including across multiple device categories, as well as understand their behavior. We will highlight potential pathways to making deep learning a tool for global inverse design across multiple device categories, while also opening up the 'black box' of the machine learning algorithm to understand why a particular optimized design works well.
Standard solar cells heat up under sunlight, and the resulting increased temperature of the solar cell has adverse consequences on both its efficiency and its reliability. We introduce a general approach to radiatively lower the operating temperature of a solar cell through sky access, while maintaining its sunlight absorption. We present first an ideal scheme for the radiative cooling of solar cells. For an example case of a bare crystalline silicon solar cell, we show that the ideal scheme can passively lower the operating temperature by 18.3 K. We then show a microphotonic design based on realistic material properties, that approaches the performance of the ideal scheme. We also show that the radiative cooling effect is substantial, even in the presence of significant non-radiative heat change, and parasitic solar absorption in the cooling layer, provided that we design the cooling layer to be sufficiently thin.
We consider light trapping in photonic crystals. Using temporal coupled-mode theory and assuming that the active material is weakly absorbing, we show that the upper bound of the angle-integrated light trapping absorption enhancement is proportional to the photonic density of states. The tight bound can be reached if all the modes supported by the structure are coupled to external radiation. We discuss the roles of van Hove singularity, effective medium theory, and periodicity. By appropriate design, the angle-integrated absorption enhancement could surpass the conventional limit substantially in two dimension and marginally in three dimension.
We use a rigorous electromagnetic approach to develop a light-trapping theory, which reveals that the
conventional limit can be substantially surpassed in nanophotonic regimes, opening new avenues for highly efficient
solar cells.
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