Many-body near-field radiative heat transfer: methods, functionalities and applications

Tunable Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Graphene-Coated Magneto-Optical Metasurfaces

The highly structured design of metasurfaces greatly facilitates the manipulation of near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). In this study, we incorporate magneto-optical materials into metasurfaces to theoretically explore the mechanism for controlling NFRHT between anisotropic magneto-optical metasurfaces. Our findings indicate that the interaction between the magnetization-induced modes, arising from interband transitions of graphene, and the surface modes of InSb under a magnetic field leads to a transition in the heat transfer spectrum from a dual band to a triple band. The modification of the distribution and magnitude of transmission wave vectors in surface electromagnetic modes by magnetic fields serves to modulate the radiative heat flux. By combining active control by a magnetic field with passive structural design of metasurfaces, the regulation of heat flux can be increased by more than 8-fold compared with the planar configuration. Additionally, the magnetic field amplifies the anisotropy of the photon energy distribution induced by the symmetry breaking of the metasurface structure. This study is anticipated to provide a pathway for achieving flexible tuning of NFRHT by combining active and passive regulation. It also opens up possibilities for multiband information transmission and for improving the performance of energy conversion devices.

Coupling polaritons in near-field radiative heat transfer between multilayer graphene/vacuum/α-MoO3/vacuum heterostructures

Both materials and structures can significantly affect radiative heat transfer, which is more pronounced in the near-field regime of two-dimensional and hyperbolic materials, and has promising prospects in thermophotovoltaics, radiative cooling, and nanoscale metrology. Hence, it is important to investigate the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) in complicated heterostructures consisting of two-dimensional and hyperbolic materials. Recent studies have reported that adding vacuum layers to multilayer structures can effectively enhance the NFRHT. Take the case of multilayer graphene/α-MoO3 heterostructures: the effect of vacuum layers on these heterostructures has not been studied, and hence investigations on adding vacuum layers between graphene and α-MoO3 layers should be emphasized. In this work, we conduct an investigation of the NFRHT between multilayer graphene/vacuum/α-MoO3/vacuum heterostructures. Compared to unit graphene/α-MoO3 heterostructures without vacuum layers, it is found that NFRHT between the heterostructures with vacuum layers can be suppressed to 49.1% when the gap distance is 10 nm, and can be enhanced to 16.3% when the gap distance is 100 nm. These phenomena are thoroughly explained by the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons and hyperbolic phonon polaritons. Energy transmission coefficients and spectral heat flux are analysed during the calculations changing chemical potentials of graphene, thicknesses of vacuum layers, and α-MoO3 layers. This study is expected to provide guidance in implementing the thermal management of reasonable NFRHT devices based on graphene/α-MoO3 heterostructures.

Regulation of Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Multilayer BP/hBN Heterostructures

As an allotrope of phosphorus and a promising 2D semiconductor, black phosphorus (BP) exhibits in-plane anisotropy along its armchair and zigzag crystal directions, allowing for efficient regulation of near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). In this work, we investigate the NFRHT between two multilayer BP/hBN heterostructures and theoretically demonstrate that thermal regulation can be realized by tuning the electron density and rotation angle of BP. Results show that a larger electron density leads to the coupling of anisotropic surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) of BP with hyperbolic modes of hBN, and rotation of BP changes the anisotropic characteristic of coupled SPPs on both sides, whereby a regulation ratio of 5.8 can be obtained. We also analyze the effects of period number, hBN layer thickness, and topmost-layer material on the NFRHT. This work may be beneficial for efficient nanoscale thermal management and physical understanding of radiative heat transfer based on anisotropic SPPs.

NFRHT modulation between graphene/SiC core-shell and hBN plate through strain

We numerically investigate the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between a graphene/SiC core-shell (GSCS) nanoparticle and a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) plate. By applying a compressive strain to the hBN plate, its hyperbolic modes can be tuned. Consequently, the hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPPs) of hBN and the high-frequency localized surface resonance (LSR) of GSCS nanoparticle can couple and decouple, thus allowing for the active control of NFRHT. Furthermore, we predict that, combining with the effect of the chemical potential of graphene shell on NFRHT, a thermal rectification ratio of up to 13.6 can be achieved. This work enriches the phonon-polariton coupling mechanism and also facilitates dynamic thermal management at the nanoscale.

Radiative Heat Transfer with a Cylindrical Waveguide Decays Logarithmically Slow

Radiative heat transfer between two far-field-separated nanoparticles placed close to a perfectly conducting nanowire decays logarithmically slow with the interparticle distance. This makes a cylinder an excellent waveguide which can transfer thermal electromagnetic energy to arbitrary large distances with almost no loss. It leads to a dramatic increase of the heat transfer, so that, for almost any (large) separation, the transferred energy can be as large as for isolated particles separated by a few hundred nanometers. A phenomenologically found analytical formula accurately describes the numerical results over a wide range of parameters.

Magnetically tunable dual-band terahertz absorption based on guided-mode resonance

We propose a magnetically tunable dual-band terahertz (THz) absorber by using an InAs substrate with a subwavelength zero-contrast germanium grating. The results demonstrate that the absorption peaks in this absorber can be dynamically tuned by changing the intensity and the rotation angle of the applied transverse magnetic field, which is achievable at a moderate order of magnitude of 0.1 Tesla. In addition, we investigate the distribution of magnetic field intensity and find that the magnetically tunable absorption originates from the combination of the magneto-optical effect and the guided-mode resonance effect, where the absorption peaks shift in different directions at normal incidence and oblique incidence. Furthermore, the absorption intensity of the proposed structure could reach 99% with an ultra-high Q-factor of 258. This work paves the way for actively adjustable high-resolution THz absorption or a nonreciprocal thermal emitter.

Enhanced Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer between Graphene/hBN Systems

Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) can exceed the blackbody radiation limit owing to the coupled evanescent waves, implying a significant potential for energy conversion and thermal management. Coupled surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPPs) with small ohmic losses enable a long propagation wavelength that is essential in NFRHT. However, so far, there still lacks knowledge about the experimental investigation of the coupling of SPPs and HPPs in terms of NFRHT. In this study, the NFRHT between graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) systems that can be readily transferred onto various substrates, with a gap space of ≈400 nm is measured. NFRHT enhancements in the order of three and six times higher than the blackbody limit for graphene/hBN heterostructures and graphene/hBN/graphene multilayers, respectively are demonstrated. In addition, the largest ever radiative heat flux using graphene/hBN/graphene multilayers under similar gap space of 400 nm is obtained. Consequently, analyzing the photon tunneling modes reveal that these phenomena are consequences of coupled SPPs of graphene and HPPs of hBN.

Effective Approximation Method for Nanogratings-induced Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer

Nanoscale radiative thermal transport between a pair of metamaterial gratings is studied within this work. The effective medium theory (EMT), a traditional method to calculate the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between nanograting structures, does not account for the surface pattern effects of nanostructures. Here, we introduce the effective approximation NFRHT method that considers the effects of surface patterns on the NFRHT. Meanwhile, we calculate the heat flux between a pair of silica (SiO₂) nanogratings with various separation distances, lateral displacements, and grating heights with respect to one another. Numerical calculations show that when compared with the EMT method, here the effective approximation method is more suitable for analyzing the NFRHT between a pair of relatively displaced nanogratings. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that compared with the result based on the EMT method, it is possible to realize an inverse heat flux trend with respect to the nanograting height between nanogratings without modifying the vacuum gap calculated by this effective approximation NFRHT method, which verifies that the NFRHT between the side faces of gratings greatly affects the NFRHT between a pair of nanogratings. By taking advantage of this effective approximation NFRHT method, the NFRHT in complex micro/nano-electromechanical devices can be accurately predicted and analyzed.