Balancing positive and negative luminescence for thermoradiative signatureless communications

Michael P. Nielsen; Stefan A. Maier; Michael S. Fuhrer; Nicholas J. Ekins-Daukes

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-02119-y

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Balancing positive and negative luminescence for thermoradiative signatureless communications

Original Articles

- Balancing positive and negative luminescence for thermoradiative signatureless communications
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 5, Pages: 1617-1623(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington 2052 NSW, Australia
  2.School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton 3800 VIC, Australia
  3.Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
- Author bio：
  
  Michael P. Nielsen (michael.nielsen@unsw.edu.au)
  Stefan A. Maier (stefan.maier@monash.edu)
  Michael S. Fuhrer (michael.fuhrer@monash.edu)
  Nicholas J. Ekins-Daukes (nekins@unsw.edu.au)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-02119-y
  CLC：
- Received：21 July 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-10-28，
  
  Accepted：04 November 2025，
  
  Online First：05 March 2026，
  
  Published：31 May 2026
- Accepted：
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Nielsen, M. P. et al. Balancing positive and negative luminescence for thermoradiative signatureless communications. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1617-1623 (2026).
DOI：

Nielsen, M. P. et al. Balancing positive and negative luminescence for thermoradiative signatureless communications. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1617-1623 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-02119-y.

摘要

Abstract

Ambient-temperature thermal infrared radiation is an underutilised resource for secure communications. Demonstrations of free-space data transfer using thermal radiation have been few

and have relied on intrinsically slow modulation of either the emissivity and/or physical temperature of a broadband blackbody emitter

severely limiting data transfer rates (< 1 kHz). Here

we demonstrate a covert communications method in which photon emission is rapidly electrically modulated both above and below the level of a passive blackbody at the emitter temperature. The time-averaged emission can be designed to be identical to the thermal background

realizing communications with zero optical signature for detectors with bandwidth lower than the modulation frequency. We demonstrate this scheme using both electro- and negative luminescence in thermoradiative diodes

enabling data rates up to at least 100 kbps and modulation rates above 1 MHz. Future prospects for ultra-high-bandwidth (up to THz) emitters and detectors utilising meta-optics and 2D materials are discussed.

关键词

Keywords

references

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