The Zhu Group studies the heat and light at the nanoscale, for both fundamentals and energy applications. Some topics have included experiment and theory, on radiative heat transfer, nanophotonics, active refrigeration, radiative cooling, thermophotovoltaics, calorimetry and thermometry.
We studied energy conversion devices based near field heat transfer, including a first demonstration of photonic refrigeration using incoherent light, and boosting thermophotovoltaic electricity generation rate.
We explored the use of the cold outer space as a thermodynamic resource. We demonstrated radiative cooling to deep sub-freezing temperatures, and radiative cooling of solar absorbers such as for improving solar cells.
We theoretically studied magnetic control of thermal transport, including equilibrium persistent heat currents, completely breaking Kirchhoff’s law, and introducing modal radiation laws that apply regardless of reciprocity.