High-temperature infrared camouflage with efficient thermal management

Huanzheng Zhu,Qiang Li,Sandeep Kaur,Pintu Ghosh,Han Wang,Ziquan Xu,Yu Hong,Weidong Shen,Min Qiu,Chunqi Zheng

doi:10.1038/s41377-020-0300-5

Huanzheng Zhu, Qiang Li + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-020-0300-5

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Abstract

High-temperature infrared (IR) camouflage is crucial to the effective concealment of high-temperature objects but remains a challenging issue, as the thermal radiation of an object is proportional to the fourth power of temperature (T4). Here, we experimentally demonstrate high-temperature IR camouflage with efficient thermal management. By combining a silica aerogel for thermal insulation and a Ge/ZnS multilayer wavelength-selective emitter for simultaneous radiative cooling (high emittance in the 5–8 μm non-atmospheric window) and IR camouflage (low emittance in the 8–14 μm atmospheric window), the surface temperature of an object is reduced from 873 to 410 K. The IR camouflage is demonstrated by indoor/outdoor (with/without earthshine) radiation temperatures of 310/248 K for an object at 873/623 K and a 78% reduction in with-earthshine lock-on range. This scheme may introduce opportunities for high-temperature thermal management and infrared signal processing.

Highlights

Infrared (IR) camouflage technology aims to conceal the IR signature of objects and render them invisible to potential threats with IR detectors, including thermal imaging systems, heat-seeking missiles, IR missile warning satellites, etc.[1,2,3,4]
We experimentally demonstrate hightemperature IR camouflage with efficient thermal management by combining wavelength-selective emitters and thermal insulators
Under the conditions of Case I, the surface temperatures Ts of the object are compared for radiative cooling in the nonatmospheric window (5–8 μm), thermal insulation and their combined effect (Fig. 1b)

Summary

Introduction

Infrared (IR) camouflage technology aims to conceal the IR signature of objects and render them invisible to potential threats with IR detectors, including thermal imaging systems, heat-seeking missiles, IR missile warning satellites, etc.[1,2,3,4]. Wavelength-selective emitters[19,20,21,22,23,24,25] with radiative cooling[26,27,28,29,30,31] in the non-atmospheric window (5–8 μm)[18,20,32] are adopted to mitigate the heat instability without influencing the IR camouflage. They cannot operate at high temperature (

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