The strong light-matter interaction enhanced by surface plasmons are well known to be the enabler for various applications such as sensing, imaging, catalysis, and heat generation. In particular, surface plasmon resonance is the central working principle for the selective absorber in commercial solar heaters. On the other hand, reversing the optical properties of a selective absorber will result in sub-ambient radiative cooling. This invites the question of whether we can step further to dynamically tune the optical properties so that the heating/cooling energy utilization or even more functionalities can be realized on the same device. Fundamentally, this requires in-depth knowledge of the structure-property-synthesis relationship of plasmonic materials that can be controlled in a dynamic, reversible, and efficient manner.
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