The process of engineering, controlling and fabricating structures of 1-100 nanometers in size, which defines “nanoscale,” and using them for advanced engineering applications is a challenging endeavor. The unusual characteristics of such structures are due to their small sizes and high percentage of atoms in surface states, which yield unique properties that differ from those of the same bulk materials. At this scale, the radiation transfer takes place due to near-field effects in addition the far-field effects. In this talk, importance of energy harvesting will be discussed and the potential use of near-field radiation transfer for the development of thermophotovoltaic systems will be outlined. Extension of these concepts to characterization and manufacturing will be shown.
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