Carnegie Mellon University

University of Pittsburgh

Sheng Shen

Wei Gong

Pengfei Li

Paul R Ohodnicki, Jr

Lin Jing

Baoan Liu

Itzhaq Cohen-Karni

Raghav Garg

A near-field probe (and associated method) compatible with near-infrared electromagnetic radiation and high temperature applications above 300° C. (or 500° C. in some applications) includes an optical waveguide and a photonic thermal emitting structure comprising a near-field thermally emissive material coupled to or part of the optical waveguide. The photonic thermal emitting structure is structured and configured to emit near-field energy responsive to at least one environmental parameter of interest, and the near-field probe is structured and configured to enable extraction of the near-field energy to a far-field by coupling the near-field energy into one or more guided modes of the optical waveguide.

High temperature near-field probe for sensing and energy harvesting applications based upon thermal emission

A high-performance thermal interface comprising a nanowire array disposed between a bottom metal layer and a top metal layer in which each nanowire is coated with a 3D fuzzy graphene layer. The thermal interface can be used by bonding it to the surfaces of adjoining substrates using layers of solder.

Nanowire-based thermal interface

A solar thermal energy device is provided. Also provided is a method of making a solar thermal energy device.

Solar energy converter and related methods

A high-performance thermal interface material comprising a heterogeneous copper-tin nanowire array that is ultra-compliant and that can reduce thermal resistance by two times as compared with the state-of-the-art thermal interface materials. The high-performance thermal interface material can be further used in electronic systems, ranging from microelectronics to portable electronics to massive data centers, to operate at lower temperatures, or at the same temperature but with higher performance and higher power density.

Growing community of inventors

Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Sheng Shen