Ultra-Small Coherent Thermal Conductance Using Multi-Layer Photonic Crystal

A multi-layer photonic crystal can be used to suppress coherent thermal conductance below the vacuum conductance value, over the entire high-temperature range. With interlacing layers of silicon and vacuum, heat can only be carried by photons. The thermal conductance of the crystal would then be determined by the photonic band structure. Partial photonic band gaps that present over most of the thermal spectrum, as well as the suppression of evanescent coupling of photons across the vacuum layers at high frequencies, would reduce the amount heat conducting photon channels below that of the vacuum. Thus such multi-layer structures can be very efficient thermal insulators. Besides, the thermal conductance of such structures can exhibit substantial tunability, by merely changing the size of the vacuum spacing.