2026 / Nature Communications

Structured coherent thermal emission from non-Hermitian metasurfaces

Co-first author

Research overview

Problem

How can thermal fluctuations produce coherent emission with a narrow spectrum, directionality and a vectorial polarization pattern?

Mechanism

Perturbation-induced Brillouin-zone folding couples highly radiative Fabry-Pérot modes to symmetry-protected BICs. Non-Hermitian dynamics near exceptional points jointly shape dispersion and loss, selecting emission angles in momentum space.

Result

Experiments reveal doughnut-shaped, narrowband thermal emission with vectorial polarization in the 3–5 μm atmospheric window, while suppressing the angle-dependent rainbow effect.