I will discuss recent results: (i) on the Casimir torque between two metallic one-dimensional gratings rotated by an angle θ with respect to each other [1]; and (ii) on the quantitative effect of the presence of the metallic contact grid at the front side of thermophotovoltaic cells, based on a rigorous approach [2]. This effect can be tremendous both in terms of optical and electrical (resistive) losses. However, it has been theoretically either discarded or studied by means of extremely simplified models (like shadowing methods, consisting in just ignoring the fraction of the cell surface covered by metal). ------- [1] Mauro Antezza, H. B. Chan, Brahim Guizal, V.N. Marachevsky, Riccardo Messina, Mingkang Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 013903 (2020). [2] K. Austry, Y. Jeyar, M. Luo, B. Guizal, R. Messina, R. Vaillon, and M. Antezza, in preparation (2023)

(1) We will discuss recent results: (i) on the Casimir torque between two metallic one-dimensional gratings rotated by an angle θ with respect to each other [1]; and (ii) on the Casimir force occurring between interpenetrating gratings [2]. These findings pave the way to the design of a contactless quantum vacuum torsional spring, and sensors with possible relevance to micro and nanomechanical devices. (2) We propose a scheme for a quantum thermal machine made by atoms interacting with a single nonequilibrium electromagnetic field. We show that these machines can deliver all thermodynamic tasks (cooling, heating, and population inversion) by establishing quantum coherence with the body on which they act. Remarkably, this system allows these machines to reach efficiencies at maximum power very close to the Carnot limit, which is much more than in existing models [3]. ------- [1] Mauro Antezza, H. B. Chan, Brahim Guizal, V.N. Marachevsky, Riccardo Messina, Mingkang Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 013903 (2020) [2] Mingkang Wang, L. Tang, C.Y. Ng, Riccardo Messina, Brahim Guizal, J. A. Crosse, Mauro Antezza, C.T. Chan, H.B. Chan, Nature Communication 12 600 (2021) [3] Bruno Leggio, Bruno Bellomo, and Mauro Antezza, Phys. Rev. A 91, 012117 (2015)

Thermal diodes, which allow heat transfer in a preferential direction while being blocked in a reverse direction, have numerous applications in thermal management, information processing, energy harvesting, etc. Typical materials of thermal diodes in previous works include phase-change and magneto-optical materials. However, such thermal diodes depend highly on specific working temperatures or external magnetic fields. In this work, we propose a near-field radiative thermal diode (NFRTD) based on two Weyl semimetal (WSM) nanoparticles (NPs) mediated by a WSM planar substrate, which works without an external magnetic field and with flexible temperatures. Numerical results show that the maximum rectification ratio of NFRTD can be up to 2673 when the emitter is 200 K and receiver is 180 K, which exceeds the maximum value reported in some previous works by more than 10 times. The underlying physical mechanism is the strong coupling of the localized plasmon modes in the NPs and nonreciprocal surface plasmon polaritons in the substrate. In addition, we calculate the distribution of the Green's function and reflection coefficient to investigate nonreciprocal energy transfer in NFRTDs. Finally, we discuss the effects of momentum separation on the rectification performance of the NFRTD. This work demonstrates the great potential of WSMs in thermal rectification and paves a path for designing high-performance NFRTDs.

We present a numerical approach for the solution of electromagnetic scattering from a dielectric cylinder partially covered with graphene. It is based on a classical Fourier-Bessel expansion of the fields inside and outside the cylinder to which we apply ad hoc boundary conditions in the presence of graphene. Due to the singular nature of the electric field at the edges of the graphene sheet, we introduce auxiliary boundary conditions. The result is a particularly simple and efficient method allowing the study of diffraction from such structures. We also highlight the presence of multiple plasmonic resonances that we ascribe to the surface modes of the coated cylinder.