Hyperlens makes thermal emission strongly super-Planckian

We suggest and theoretically explore a possibility to strongly enhance thermal radiation of hot bodies using an infrared hyperlens. The hyperbolic metamaterial of the hyperlens converts emitter's near fields into propagating waves which are efficiently irradiated from the hyperlens surface. Thus, with the hyperlens, emitter's spectral radiance goes well beyond the black-body limit for the same emitter in free space. Although the hyperlens can be kept at a much lower temperature than the emitter, the whole structure may radiate, in principle, as efficiently as a black body with the same size as that of the hyperlens and the same temperature as that of the emitter. We believe that this study can lead to a breakthrough in radiative cooling at microscale, which is crucial for microlasers and microthermophotovoltaic systems.