Materials and Devices for Engineering of Thermal Light: feature issue introduction

Abstract

Thermal radiation describes the emission of electromagnetic waves from hot objects. Although the basics of thermal radiation have been well understood for more than a century, engineering of thermal radiation is an active research field, in part because of applications to energy harvesting, lighting, and thermoregulation. The rapidly evolving research base sits at the intersection of materials science, photonics, and thermal physics. In eight research papers and one opinion paper, this feature issue of Optical Materials Express advances the multidisciplinary field of engineering of thermal light.