Nanophotonic catalytic combustion enlightens mid-infrared light source

The tunable mid-infrared source in a broad-spectrum heralds great scientific implications and remains a challenge.Nanolocalized catalytic combustion facilitates access to customizable infrared light sources.Here,we report on fabricating platinumalumina bilayer nano-cylinder arrays for methanol catalytic combustion,which enables them to act as an array of infrared point light sources,with wavelength tunable by controlling the flow rate of methanol/air mixture.We then propose a technique of integrating nanophotonic structures with catalytic combustion to engineer infrared light emission.We demonstrate a prototype of a topological photonic crystal catalyst array in which infrared emission can be enhanced significantly with highly vertical emission.This work establishes a framework of nanophotonic catalytic combustion for infrared light sources.