Passive radiative cooling, drawing heat energy of objects to the cold outer space through the atmospheric transparent window, is significant for reducing the energy consumption of buildings. Daytime and nighttime radiative cooling have been extensively investigated in the past. However, radiative cooling which can continuously regulate its cooling temperature, like a valve, according to human need is rarely reported. In this study, we propose a reconfigurable photonic structure, based on the effective medium theory and semi-analytical calculations, for the adaptive radiative cooling by continuous variation of the emission spectra in the atmospheric window. This is realized by the deformation of a one-dimensional polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) grating and nanoparticle-embedded PDMS thin film when subjected to mechanical stress/strain. The proposed structure reaches different stagnation temperatures under certain strains. A dynamic tuning in emissivity under different strains results in a continuously variable “ON”/“OFF” mode in a particular atmospheric window that corresponds to the deformation-induced fluctuation of the operating temperatures of the reconfigurable nanophotonic structure.

被动辐射冷却通过将物体的热能通过大气透明窗口吸引到寒冷的外部空间，对于降低建筑物的能耗非常重要。过去已经对白天和晚上的辐射冷却进行了广泛的研究。但是，很少有人报道可以像人的阀门那样连续调节其冷却温度的辐射冷却。在这项研究中，我们基于有效介质理论和半解析计算，提出了一种可重构的光子结构，用于通过连续改变大气窗口中的发射光谱来进行自适应辐射冷却。这是通过承受机械应力/应变的一维聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）光栅和纳米粒子嵌入的PDMS薄膜的变形来实现的。所提出的结构在某些应变下达到不同的停滞温度。在不同应变下发射率的动态调整会在特定的大气窗口中导致连续可变的“ ON” /“ OFF”模式，该模式对应于可变形纳米光子结构的工作温度的变形引起的波动。