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Near-Field Nanogap Thermophotovoltaics (2D)

Interactive 2D cross-section simulator: shrink the vacuum gap between a hot emitter plate and a photovoltaic cell down to nanometres and watch evanescent photon tunneling push the radiative heat flux far past the Stefan-Boltzmann blackbody limit, boosting electrical power output. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom the gap view.

Energy & Thermodynamics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

Push a hot emitter plate and a photovoltaic cell to within nanometres of each other and the physics of heat transfer changes completely. Far apart, radiative heat flow between them is capped by the Stefan-Boltzmann blackbody limit — the same law that governs a campfire warming your face. Inside the nanoscale gap, evanescent electromagnetic modes that would otherwise never reach the far plate instead tunnel across it, and the heat flux can exceed the blackbody limit by orders of magnitude. This 2D cross-section simulator draws both plates edge-on with a live particle stream standing in for that photon-tunneling channel — pan and zoom the view for a closer look — plus a log-log curve of the enhancement law, and tracks the real governing quantities as you sweep gap distance, emitter and cell temperature, and quantum efficiency.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D cross-section view of a hot emitter plate and a cooler photovoltaic cell separated by a vacuum gap that you shrink from microns down to nanometres. Watch evanescent photon tunneling push the radiative heat flux far past the Stefan-Boltzmann blackbody limit, boosting electrical power output, while a log-log curve plots the enhancement law against the real physics.

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install