Heat transfer devices based on thermodynamic cycling of a photonic crystal with coupled resonant defect cavities

Abstract

A heat transfer device exploits the properties of photonic crystal solids with resonant defect cavities to execute a thermodynamic cycle to accomplish the conversion between heat flow and useful energy. In a heat pump or refrigerator configuration, an actuator cyclically performs work on the photonic crystal to cycle the photonic crystal between a first state to permit the crystal to collect thermal energy from a cold region to heat the crystal and a second state to permit the photonic crystal to radiate electromagnetic energy to a hot region to cool the photonic crystal. A mechanism cycles the emission band of the photonic crystal for more efficient collection of heat energy and radiation of electromagnetic energy in the cycle.