CAREER: Blackbody radiation in the nanothermodynamic limit

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

****NON-TECHNICAL ABSTRACT**** Despite being uninformed by the modern theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, Max Planck's 1900 blackbody law describing thermal radiation appears repeatedly at the forefront of current research. This Faculty Early Career Award funds a project that will critically examine blackbody radiation from nanoscopic objects, and improve science education at several levels. Experimentally, carbon nanotubes will be configured as light bulb filaments, and their temperature will be determined by the color of the radiation they emit. Unlike those in all normal light bulbs, these filaments are narrow compared to the wavelength of the radiation they emit, and thus they are outside the usual regime where classical thermodynamics is expected to be valid. The challenge is to elucidate the modifications to Planck's law that are not material-dependent, but rather functions only of size and dimensionality. A deeper understanding of these effects will impact not only such fundamental areas as the intersection of thermodynamics with quantum mechanics, but also very specific unsolved problems. The graduate students involved with this research will learn skills that will equip them for future scientific careers. The educational improvements funded by this award exploit the ubiquity of blackbody radiation. Courses and activities will be aimed at education at many levels, high school through graduate school, as well as the general public. As blackbody radiation is currently observable coming from sources as varied as the Big Bang and toaster ovens, it forms a natural bridge between the very forefront of physics research and everyday life. ****TECHNICAL ABSTRACT**** Despite being uninformed by the modern theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, Planck's venerable blackbody radiation law appears repeatedly at the forefront of current research. This Faculty Early Career Award funds a project that will critically examine blackbody radiation in the nanothermodynamic limit, and improve science education at several levels. This project will experimentally investigate thermal radiators that are small compared to their thermal radiation's characteristic wavelength, and hot, with thermal energy scale larger than the quantum level spacings. Carbon nanotubes will be configured as light bulb filaments, and their temperature will be determined by super-resolution optical pyrometry. The challenge is to elucidate the modifications to Planck's law that are not material-dependent, but rather functions only of size and dimensionality. A deeper understanding of these effects will impact not only such fundamental areas as the intersection of thermodynamics with quantum mechanics, but also very specific open problems, such as quantifying the temperatures achieved in sonoluminescing bubbles. The graduate students involved with this research will learn skills that will equip them for future scientific careers. The educational improvements funded by this award exploit the ubiquity of blackbody radiation. Courses and activities will be aimed at education at many levels, high school through graduate school, as well as the general public. As blackbody radiation is currently observable coming from sources as varied as the Big Bang and toaster ovens, it forms a natural bridge between the very forefront of physics research and everyday life.