Blackbody Theory for Hyperbolic Materials

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Oct 23;115(17):174301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.174301. Epub 2015 Oct 22.

Abstract

The blackbody theory is revisited in the case of thermal electromagnetic fields inside uniaxial anisotropic media in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath. When these media are hyperbolic, we show that the spectral energy density of these fields radically differs from that predicted by Planck's blackbody theory and that the maximum of the spectral energy density determined by Wien's law is redshifted. Finally, we derive the Stefan-Boltzmann law for hyperbolic media which becomes a quadratic function of the heat bath temperature.