Tailoring thermal emission via Q matching of photonic crystal resonances

Abstract

We develop a model for predicting the thermal emission spectrum of a two-dimensional metallic photonic crystal for arbitrary angles based on coupled-mode theory. Calculating the appropriate coupled-mode parameters over a range of geometrical parameters allows one to tailor the emissivity spectrum to a specific application. As an example, we design an emitter with a step-function cutoff suppressing long-wavelength emission, which is necessary for high-efficiency thermophotovoltaic systems. We also confirm the accuracy of the results of our model with finite-difference time-domain simulations. © 2011 American Physical Society.