Manipulating thermoelectric fields with bilayer schemes beyond Laplacian metamaterials

¹ Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE), Fudan University - Shanghai 200438, China
² School of Physics, East China University of Science and Technology - Shanghai 200237, China

^(a) 18110190048@fudan.edu.cn (corresponding author)
^(b) jphuang@fudan.edu.cn

Received: 27 April 2021
Accepted: 20 July 2021

Abstract

Manipulating multiphysical fields with metamaterials has received enormous attention recently because of the high functional integration and extensive practical applicability. However, coupled multi-field systems such as thermoelectric fields, where heat and electric fluxes are coupled via the Seebeck coefficients, still lack efficient control with artificial structures. Here, we theoretically design a category of bilayer thermoelectric metamaterials based on the generalized scattering-cancellation method. By solving the governing equations directly, we formulate the specific parameter requirements for the desired functionalities beyond existing single-field or decoupled multi-field Laplacian metamaterials. Compared with the recently reported transformation optics for thermoelectric flows, bilayer schemes do not require inhomogeneity and anisotropy in constitutive materials. Finite-element simulations confirm the analytical results and show robustness under various exterior conditions. A feasible experimental design with naturally occuring materials is also proposed for further proof-of-principle verification. Our theoretical method and device design may be extended to other coupled multiphysical systems such as thermo-optics, thermomagnetics, optomechanics, etc.