Congratulations on your graduation, Doctor Jin Dai

Where are you from and where did you study before coming to KTH?

I am from China where I finished my bachelor degree in physics. Afterwards, I joined the Erasmus Mundus Master programme in Photonics and spent my first year at Ghent University in Belgium and second year at KTH.

What is your topic and why did you choose it?

My topic focuses on taming the near-field radiative heat transfer using plasmonic nanostructure. I chose this topic because thermal radiation is an important way of heat transfer especially when conduction and convection are obstructed or needs to be avoided, such as for devices operating in space and thermophotovoltaics.

Describe your topic in short.

In the near-field regime the radiative heat transfer between two objects can exceed the limit dictated by Planck’s law. In this thesis we numerically studied the enhanced radiative heat transfer between plasmonic nanostructures and revealed the underlying physics which leads to this strong enhancement.

Tell me something about your results.

We have demonstrated a superior frequency-selective radiative heat transfer based on a 2D grooved metal plate structure which can be potentially used for nano-gap thermophotovoltaic applications. We also demonstrated, for the first time, the enhanced radiative heat transfer between profile-patterned hyperbolic metamaterials, which shows an ultrabroadband heat flux spectrum.

What will the future bring for your research topic?

With the advances in characterization techniques, very recently researchers have experimentally observed the enhanced heat transfer between two closely spaced object at a separation of few nanometer. More and more applications of near-field radiative heat transfer on device level will come to the fore in the foreseeable future.

What are your future plans?

I will try to get my own funding, which will allow me to continue my research.