VO2metasurface smart thermal emitter with high visual transparency for passive radiative cooling regulation in space and terrestrial applications
VO2metasurface smart thermal emitter with high visual transparency for passive radiative cooling regulation in space and terrestrial applications
Smart radiative cooling devices based on thermochromic materials such as vanadium dioxide (VO2) are of practical interest for temperature regulation and artificial homeostasis, i.e., maintaining stable equilibrium conditions for survival, both in terrestrial and space applications. In traditional solar reflector configurations, solar absorption in the VO2 layer is a performance limiting factor due to the multiple reflections of sunlight in the stack. Here, we demonstrate a visually transparent, smart radiator panel with reduced solar absorption. An Al-doped ZnO transparent conducting oxide layer acts as a frequency selective infrared back-reflector with high transmission of solar radiation. In this study we make use of high-quality VO2 thin films deposited using atomic layer deposition and optimized annealing process. Patterning of the VO2 layer into a metasurface results in a further reduction of the solar absorption parameter α to around 0.3, while exhibiting a thermal emissivity contrast Δϵ of 0.26 by exploiting plasmonic enhancement effects. The VO2 metasurface provides a visual spectrum transmission of up to 62%, which is of interest for a range of applications requiring visual transparency. The transparent smart metasurface thermal emitter offers a new approach for thermal management in both space and terrestrial radiative cooling scenarios.
metasurfaces, plasmonics, radiative cooling, thermochromic, vanadium dioxide, VO
4101-4114
Sun, Kai
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Xiao, Wei
20758ef4-698c-46e5-bb9b-a97db7340379
Wheeler, Callum
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Simeoni, Mirko
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Urbani, Alessandro
d68233a3-a42d-4291-b938-9bf05daa22b2
Gaspari, Matteo
015ef61b-5f60-4584-a3d2-1bec5e6424df
Mengali, Sandro
e9ff1aee-6345-4414-af05-4d99308fdb73
Kees De Groot, C. H.
5df12ad9-3f3c-40f9-b05b-d2df6ea16e6d
Muskens, Otto L.
2284101a-f9ef-4d79-8951-a6cda5bfc7f9
2 September 2022
Sun, Kai
b7c648a3-7be8-4613-9d4d-1bf937fb487b
Xiao, Wei
20758ef4-698c-46e5-bb9b-a97db7340379
Wheeler, Callum
0e02ee8f-8629-4169-9a53-64e0b905de05
Simeoni, Mirko
8a24802d-647f-4fc1-b45e-87b922c9d990
Urbani, Alessandro
d68233a3-a42d-4291-b938-9bf05daa22b2
Gaspari, Matteo
015ef61b-5f60-4584-a3d2-1bec5e6424df
Mengali, Sandro
e9ff1aee-6345-4414-af05-4d99308fdb73
Kees De Groot, C. H.
5df12ad9-3f3c-40f9-b05b-d2df6ea16e6d
Muskens, Otto L.
2284101a-f9ef-4d79-8951-a6cda5bfc7f9
Sun, Kai, Xiao, Wei, Wheeler, Callum, Simeoni, Mirko, Urbani, Alessandro, Gaspari, Matteo, Mengali, Sandro, Kees De Groot, C. H. and Muskens, Otto L.
(2022)
VO2metasurface smart thermal emitter with high visual transparency for passive radiative cooling regulation in space and terrestrial applications.
Nanophotonics, 11 (17), .
(doi:10.1515/nanoph-2022-0020).
Abstract
Smart radiative cooling devices based on thermochromic materials such as vanadium dioxide (VO2) are of practical interest for temperature regulation and artificial homeostasis, i.e., maintaining stable equilibrium conditions for survival, both in terrestrial and space applications. In traditional solar reflector configurations, solar absorption in the VO2 layer is a performance limiting factor due to the multiple reflections of sunlight in the stack. Here, we demonstrate a visually transparent, smart radiator panel with reduced solar absorption. An Al-doped ZnO transparent conducting oxide layer acts as a frequency selective infrared back-reflector with high transmission of solar radiation. In this study we make use of high-quality VO2 thin films deposited using atomic layer deposition and optimized annealing process. Patterning of the VO2 layer into a metasurface results in a further reduction of the solar absorption parameter α to around 0.3, while exhibiting a thermal emissivity contrast Δϵ of 0.26 by exploiting plasmonic enhancement effects. The VO2 metasurface provides a visual spectrum transmission of up to 62%, which is of interest for a range of applications requiring visual transparency. The transparent smart metasurface thermal emitter offers a new approach for thermal management in both space and terrestrial radiative cooling scenarios.
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 12 April 2022
Published date: 2 September 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Research funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 821932 “SMART-FLEX”. OM acknowledges funding from EPSRC through grant EP/M009122/1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Kai Sun et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.
Keywords:
metasurfaces, plasmonics, radiative cooling, thermochromic, vanadium dioxide, VO
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 468687
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468687
PURE UUID: 8ac3b1f5-374b-4e99-9828-f0a9cea98f4e
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Date deposited: 22 Aug 2022 17:12
Last modified: 15 Jun 2024 01:42
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Contributors
Author:
Callum Wheeler
Author:
Mirko Simeoni
Author:
Alessandro Urbani
Author:
Matteo Gaspari
Author:
Sandro Mengali
Author:
C. H. Kees De Groot
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