Alabastri, Alessandro2023-09-012023-09-012023-082023-07-27August 202Jerome, Bryant Beau. "Photothermal Emission and Absorption in Carbon Materials." (2023) Master's Thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115240.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115240Carbon-based materials of many varieties have long been known to act as broadband absorbers, making them useful for thermal radiation control and photothermal applications, depending on their optical and thermophysical properties. In this work, we explore the potential applications of carbon-based materials as hyperbolic thermal emitters and highly localized photothermal heat sources, showing the promise of these materials to advance thermal and optical systems across the nano- and macro-scale. The first chapter of this thesis is dedicated to exploring aligned carbon nanotube films as hyperbolic thermal emitters. Due to an extremely anisotropic optical dispersion, carbon nanotubes can display peculiar light-matter interaction properties. The hyperbolic dispersion of aligned carbon nanotubes in the infrared makes them excellent candidates for thermal emitter applications; however, there is significant difficulty in coupling photons from the bulk of the carbon nanotube film to free space, especially for macroscopic film thicknesses. Using systematic Finite Element Method calculations, we propose a novel grating scheme consisting of a deep etch cut directly into a CNT film. This allows bulk plasmon polaritons to couple to free space across the thickness of the etched grating, suggesting a strategy for the emitters for macro-scale applications. The second chapter is dedicated to using carbon black nanoparticles to generate a localized heat source from ambient sunlight for solar thermal desalination. The majority of this chapter is dedicated to using Finite Element Method calculations to improve the efficiency at which a thermal desalination system exploits the heat source provided by carbon black nanoparticles. We find that short, intense heating regions separated from the evaporating region can result in a large, power-independent efficiency for an optimized desalination system. Cost-effective carbon black nanoparticles are uniquely positioned to serve as a heat source in these systems, demonstrating their usefulness in general photothermal applications.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.carbon nanotubescarbon blackbroadband absorbersthermal radiation controldesalinationphotothermalopticshyperbolic materialsthermal emitter applicationsfinite element methodbulk plasmon polaritonsThesis2023-09-01