Phase transition for hot nanophotonics (Conference Presentation)

The two next-generation technologies poised to revolutionize our society are 3D displays and efficient energy conversion, and nanophotonics is the key to both. While tunable devices enable 3D displays, LiDAR, virtual reality, and such other applications, refractory nanophotonic devices enable efficient thermophotovoltaic energy conversion. Both of these nanophotonic devices can be realized by exploiting the phenomenon of many-body effects. While electronic correlation leads to a huge optical tunability, parity-time symmetric interaction between photonic resonators results in frequency-selective thermal emitters necessary for efficient thermophotovoltaics. This talk will describe tunable nanophotonic devices based on charge density waves in 1T-tantalum disulfide and frequency-selective thermal emitters based on hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonators.