Photonic Structures for Efficient Thermal Management

Environmental thermal management represents a large portion of global energy consumption. Effectively maintaining desired temperature with minimum input energy has gained substantial attention due to economic and environmental needs. Photonic micro/nanostructures possessing unique capability of spectral control in both solar and infrared ranges are emerging as a novel and effective approach to manage thermal energy. The discovery of new suitable materials and structural variations offers new fundamental science and controlling mechanisms, unlocking new applications, including perfect absorber, solar steam generation, radiative cooling and their applications in building, agriculture, wearable devices and so on. This special issue aims at capturing the most exciting advances in this field, promoting high impact applications.

Guest Editors: Shanhui Fan, Chengwei Qiu, and Keng-Te Lin, and APL Photonics Editor Baohua Jia