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UID:69d49f409f757
DTSTART:20250929T120000Z
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TRANSP:OPAQUE
LOCATION:ICFO Auditorium and Online (Teams)
SUMMARY:ICFO | MICHAEL THOMAS ENDERS
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:The mid-infrared spectral region holds significant potential f
 or applications in energy harvesting and waste-heat recovery\, radiative c
 ooling\, spectroscopy\, sensing\, thermal camouflage and night vision\, a
 mong others. Conventional approaches to controlling mid-infrared (mid-IR) 
 radiation with metamaterials and metasurfaces often rely on intricate fabr
 ication methods. Commercial components for mid-IR photonics rely on materi
 als that limit their scalability and accessibility. In this thesis\, we ex
 plore how van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures\, with their intrinsically 
 anisotropic optical properties and deeply subwavelength thicknesses\, enab
 le unprecedented manipulation of thermal emission in terms of directionali
 ty\, polarization\, and chirality.\nWe first introduce a straightforward 
 far-field method to extract the complex dielectric function of microscopi
 c exfoliated flakes\, facilitating accurate characterization of highly di
 spersive polar materials without sophisticated near-field instrumentation
 . We demonstrate how ultrathin flakes of &alpha\;-molybdenum trioxide (&a
 lpha\;-MoO₃) can serve as deeply subwavelength phase retarders in the mi
 d-IR\, enabling efficient polarization control at spectral regions inacces
 sible to conventional bulk optical components. Moreover\, we show that by 
 simply twisting two anisotropic flakes\, intrinsic mid-IR chirality can b
 e engineered\, resulting in circular dichroism in both absorption and ther
 mal emission\, effectively transforming inherently incoherent blackbody r
 adiation into circularly polarized emission.\nFinally\, we develop structu
 res based on anisotropic dielectric spacers within Salisbury screen confi
 gurations\, enabling simultaneous control over the azimuthal and zenithal 
 angles of emitted thermal radiation. Through analytical and numerical anal
 ysis\, clear design principles are derived and validated using realistic m
 aterials. The results presented here establish vdW materials and their het
 erostructures as versatile platforms for advanced mid-infrared photonic ap
 plications\, significantly enhancing our capability to precisely tailor t
 hermal radiation across a broad range of practical applications.\nMonday S
 eptember 29\, 14:00 h. ICFO Auditorium Thesis Director: Prof. Dr. Georgia 
 Papadakis
DTSTAMP:20260407T060800Z
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