Experimental Study of the Behavior of a Silicon Wafer with Self-Affine Surface Relief During Periodic Heating and Cooling

By ITMO University Research Team

Experimental Study of the Behavior of a Silicon Wafer with Self-Affine Surface Relief During Periodic Heating and Cooling

Authors: Gennadi Lukyanov, Sergei Makarov · Institution: ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia · Published: ICICT 2026, London · Springer LNNS, Vol. 2029, pp. 54–63 · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-28964-3_5 · Open Access: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Context

This paper is the third and conclusive entry in a longitudinal research program examining the electromagnetic behavior of the Aires Lifetune resonator — a silicon wafer (20 mm × 20 mm × 1 mm) bearing a self-affine pattern of concentric ring grooves (0.2 μm wide, 0.8 μm deep) arranged according to principles of self-similarity and scale invariance. Prior papers established a theoretical model (Kopyltsov, Lukyanov, Serov, PhysCon 2007, IEEE) and computer simulation validation (Kopyltsov, Lukyanov, Serov, ICICT 2022, Springer). This 2026 paper is the first to physically test the resonator under experimental laboratory conditions.

Object of Study

The object under study is the silicon wafer resonator, explicitly identified in the paper by its commercial name: Lifetune. The wafer features a central region covered by the self-affine ring groove pattern and a smooth polished silicon periphery. Both regions share the same actual temperature, but their differing surface topology enables direct measurement of the effect of self-affine geometry on infrared field coherence properties.

Methods

Researchers applied periodic heating and cooling cycles to the silicon wafer using a Peltier battery. A Testo 890 thermal imaging camera recorded the infrared temperature field across the resonator surface. Because a thermal imager measures apparent temperature based on emitted infrared radiation rather than contact temperature, any difference in apparent temperature between the grooved and smooth regions — when both are at identical actual temperatures — directly quantifies a difference in surface emissivity.

Key Findings

The grooved central region consistently appeared warmer than the smooth periphery in thermal images, despite both being at the same actual temperature. The emissivity of the grooved region approaches ε ≈ 0.8, comparable to the Peltier element (near-blackbody behavior). The smooth polished silicon periphery shows the low emissivity of unstructured semiconductor surfaces.

Groove widths of 0.2 μm cannot account for this absorption: such features are far too small to absorb radiation in the 8–14 μm infrared range (effective absorption requires features on the order of the radiation wavelength). The actual mechanism is the concentration of charge carriers (electrons) in the semiconductor grooves, driven by the self-affine geometry, producing additional infrared absorption by free electrons — a material-physics effect arising from topology, not from any coating or treatment.

Note on terminology: In this experimental context, “absorption” describes how silicon semiconductor material interacts with electromagnetic energy — a physical property of silicon itself. This is not a description of the Aires protection mechanism. The resonator works through structural field modulation: restructuring the coherence properties of electromagnetic fields rather than absorbing or blocking them.

Significance

This paper provides the first physical experimental confirmation that the self-affine surface relief of the Aires resonator produces anomalous electromagnetic behavior measurable under standard laboratory conditions. The authors state: “The experimental results presented in this article demonstrate the adequacy of the model of interaction between the resonator and electromagnetic radiation, previously applied in numerical simulations.”

Theory (2007) and simulation (2022) predicted that the self-affine groove pattern would produce distinctive field coherence properties attributable to geometry, not material alone. The 2026 physical experiment confirms this is physically real and measurable at ITMO University using calibrated commercial instrumentation. Published in Springer Nature LNNS — indexed by SCOPUS, EI Compendex, INSPEC, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, and SCImago; submitted for Web of Science. Open access CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Research Progression: Three-Paper Arc

Tags: emissivity, ICICT 2026, ITMO University, Lifetune, peer-reviewed, physical experiment, self-affine, Springer