Superradiance is a signature effect in quantum photonics that explains the collective enhancement of emission power by a factor of $N^2$ when $N$ emitters are placed in subwavelength proximity. Although the effect is inherently transient, successful attempts have been made to sustain it in the steady-state regime. Until recently, the effects of superradiance were not considered to be applicable to thermal emitters due to their intrinsic incoherent nature. Novel nanophotonic thermal emitters display favorable coherent characteristics that enable them to obey principles of superradiance. However, published analytical work on conventional superradiant thermal emitter assemblies shows an anomalous power scaling of $1/N$, and therefore increasing the number of thermal emitters leads to a degeneration of power at resonance. This phenomenon immediately renders the effect of thermal superradiance futile since it cannot outperform noncoupled emitters in the steady-state regime. We propose an alternative assembly of thermal emitters with specific features that improves the power scaling while maintaining the effects of superradiance. In essence, we show that our emitter assembly achieves superior power delivery over conventional noncoupled emitter systems at resonance. Additionally, this assembly has the ability to be tuned to operate at specific resonant frequencies, which is a vital requirement for applications such as photothermal cancer therapy.

• Received 11 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.155443