Spatially Resolved Dynamically Reconfigurable Multilevel Control of Thermal Emission

Spatially resolved dynamically reconfigurable control of thermal emission has comprehensive implications for fundamental science and technological applications, such as thermal camouflage and adaptive radiative heating/cooling. Materials and systems that can spatially control thermal emission with dynamic reconfigurability, simple manufacturability, and a large dynamic range have not been explored, so far. Here, a spatially resolved thermal emission control platform consisting of three components (a VO2 material with phase transition hysteresis, a thermal photonic device with a field-optimized planarized structure, and an optically controllable patterning system) is built and validated. This platform presents excellent merits such as spatially resolved control of thermal emission, multilevel (up to nine levels) emission control with a large dynamic range of the emissivity modulation (0.19 for the insulating phase and 0.91 for the metallic phase) over a broad bandwidth (8-14 mu m), and robust reconfigurability. The results demonstrate potential applications in the field of thermal photonics for information and energy harvesting.