The adhesion and accretion of ice on ground aircraft always pose potential problem to aircraft engine operation and safety performance. Currently, chemical deicing technology is often used for aircraft deicing. However, it is effective, but not environmental-friendly, cost-effectively and always compromises material performance of aircraft. Infrared ray (IR) deicing technology, by contrast, is proved to be a promising deicing technology due to its high efficiency, safety performance and environment protection. However, the energy efficiency of IR deicing technology and physical process of ice melt have not been fully researched and understood. It is therefore necessary to study them to improve the IR deicing performances. In this paper, some important characteristics of IR deicing were firstly investigated, including ice melt rate, variation of ice temperatures and mass. Secondly, the heat transfer mechanism through whole deicing process was studied. Finally, based on the experiment results, the energy efficiency of IR deicing was calculated and discussed. And the studied results showed that the maximum energy efficiency of IR deicing could reach 53.1% at the highest setting temperature 2273 K. For melting 6.5 kg ice, the melt time was 1746 s and 1002 s at setting temperature 1073 K and 2073 K, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.