Influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based on biaxial hyperbolic materials

Abstract

Relative rotation between the emitter and receiver could effectively modulate the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) in anisotropic media. Due to the strong in-plane anisotropy, natural hyperbolic materials can be used to construct near-field radiative modulators with excellent modulation effects. However, in practical applications, natural hyperbolic materials need to be deposited on the substrate, and the influence of substrate on modulation effect has not been studied yet. In this work, we investigate the influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based on α-MoO3. The results show that compared to the situation without a substrate, the presence of both lossless and lossy substrate will reduce the modulation contrast (MC) for different film thicknesses. When the real or imaginary component of the substrate permittivity increases, the mismatch of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPPs) weakens, resulting in a reduction in MC. By reducing the real and imaginary components of substrate permittivity, the MC can be significantly improved, reaching 4.64 for ε s = 3 at t = 10 nm. This work indicates that choosing a substrate with a smaller permittivity helps to achieve a better modulation effect, and provides guidance for the application of natural hyperbolic materials in the near-field radiative modulator.