Identifier

etd-07082017-130131

Degree

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there have been tremendous innovations in electronics and photonics. The development of these ultra-fast growing technologies mostly relies on fundamental understanding of novel materials with unique properties as well as new designs of device architectures with more diverse and better functionalities. In this regard, the promising approach for next-generation nanoscale electronics and photonics is to exploit the extraordinary characteristics of novel nanomaterials. There has been an explosion of interest in graphene for photonic applications as it provides a degree of freedom to manipulate electromagnetic waves. In this thesis, to tailor the broadband blackbody radiation, new aperiodic multilayer structures composed of multiple layers of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) are proposed as selective, tunable and switchable thermal emitters. To obtain the layer thicknesses of these aperiodic multilayer structures for maximum emittance/absorptance, a hybrid optimization algorithm coupled to a transfer matrix code is employed. The device simulation indicates that perfect absorption efficiency of unity can be achieved at very narrow frequency bands in the infrared under normal incidence. It has been shown that the chemical potential in graphene enables a promising way to design electrically controllable absorption/emission, resulting in selective, tunable and switchable thermal emitters at infrared frequencies. By simulating different aperiodic thermal emitters with different numbers of graphene layers, the effect of the number of graphene layers on selectivity, tunability, and switchability of thermal emittance is investigated. This study may contribute towards the realization of wavelength selective detectors with switchable intensity for sensing applications.

Date

2017

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Secure the entire work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a period of one year. Student has submitted appropriate documentation which states: During this period the copyright owner also agrees not to exercise her/his ownership rights, including public use in works, without prior authorization from LSU. At the end of the one year period, either we or LSU may request an automatic extension for one additional year. At the end of the one year secure period (or its extension, if such is requested), the work will be released for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Veronis, Georgios

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.4416

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