A Review on the Scientific and Technological Breakthroughs in Thermal Emission Engineering

Understand

The emission of thermal radiation is a physical process of fundamental and technological interest.

• From different approaches, thermal radiation can be regarded either as one of the basic mechanisms of heat transfer, as a fundamental quantum phenomenon of photon production, or as the propagation of electromagnetic waves.
• However, unlike light emanating from conventional photonic sources, such as lasers or antennas, thermal radiation is characterized for being broadband, omnidirectional, and unpolarized.
• Due to these features, ultimately tied to its inherently incoherent nature, taming the thermal radiation constitutes a challenging issue.