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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Assawaworrarit, Sid, Song, Alex, Fan, Shanhui
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18962
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author Assawaworrarit, Sid
Song, Alex
Fan, Shanhui
author_facet Assawaworrarit, Sid
Song, Alex
Fan, Shanhui
contents Control of thermal emission is important in a number of applications from thermal energy harvesting and management and sensing of gas and chemical to thermal camouflage. Semiconductor-based devices can be engineered to enable electrical control of thermal emission, offering high modulation speed and ease of voltage control. Existing device designs for modulating thermal emission rely on semiconductors other than silicon, such as III-V and II-VI compounds, which are expensive. The silicon platform offers several advantages, including significantly lower cost, CMOS compatibility, and mature fabrication processes. However, a silicon-based design for modulating thermal emission remains absent. Here, we present an all-silicon device utilising electrical control over carrier dynamics to modulate a narrowband thermal emission in the mid-infrared region. We design a silicon device exhibiting voltage-controlled narrowband thermal emission at 10 μm and confirm its performance using electromagnetic calculations. This work paves the way for scalable, low-cost, and integrated thermal emission devices made possible by the silicon platform.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_18962
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A silicon-based device for dynamic control of thermal emission
Assawaworrarit, Sid
Song, Alex
Fan, Shanhui
Applied Physics
Control of thermal emission is important in a number of applications from thermal energy harvesting and management and sensing of gas and chemical to thermal camouflage. Semiconductor-based devices can be engineered to enable electrical control of thermal emission, offering high modulation speed and ease of voltage control. Existing device designs for modulating thermal emission rely on semiconductors other than silicon, such as III-V and II-VI compounds, which are expensive. The silicon platform offers several advantages, including significantly lower cost, CMOS compatibility, and mature fabrication processes. However, a silicon-based design for modulating thermal emission remains absent. Here, we present an all-silicon device utilising electrical control over carrier dynamics to modulate a narrowband thermal emission in the mid-infrared region. We design a silicon device exhibiting voltage-controlled narrowband thermal emission at 10 μm and confirm its performance using electromagnetic calculations. This work paves the way for scalable, low-cost, and integrated thermal emission devices made possible by the silicon platform.
title A silicon-based device for dynamic control of thermal emission
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.18962