Perspective on Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer

Abstract

Although near-field radiative heat transfer was introduced in the 1950's, interest in the field has recently revived, as the effect promises improved performance in various applications where contactless temperature regulation in the small-scale is a requirement. With progress in computational electromagnetics as well as in nanoinstrumentation, it has become possible to simulate the effect in complex configurations and to measure it with high precision. In this Perspective, we highlight key theoretical and experimental advances in the field, and we discuss important developments in tailoring and enhancing near-field thermal emission and heat transfer. We discuss opportunities in heat-to-electricity energy conversion with thermophotovoltaic systems, as well as non-reciprocal heat transfer, as two of many recent focus topics in the field. Finally, we highlight key experimental challenges and opportunities with emerging materials, for probing near-field heat transfer for relevant technologies in the large-scale.

References in corpus (13)

• Advanced scanning probe lithography
• Thermophotovoltaic Efficiency of 40%
• Near-field Radiative Heat Transfer in Many-Body Systems
• Near-field radiative heat transfer between a sphere and a substrate
• Effects of spatial dispersion in near-field radiative heat transfer between two parallel metallic surfaces
• Resonant photon tunneling enhancement of the radiative heat transfer
• Radiative heat transfer between metallic nanoparticles
• Dynamic modulation of thermal emission -- a Tutorial
• Nonreciprocal radiative heat transfer between two planar bodies
• Deep subwavelength thermal switch via resonant coupling in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride
• Small distance expansion for radiative heat transfer between curved objects
• Tight bounds and the role of optical loss in polariton-mediated near-field heat transfer
• All electromagnetic scattering bodies are matrix-valued oscillators

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Transport in electron-photon systems
• Extreme near-field heat transfer between silica surfaces
• Twist-induced near-field radiative thermal regulator assisted by cylindrical surface modes
• Radiative Heat Transfer and 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Materials
• Propulsion force and heat transfer for nonreciprocal nanoparticles
• Non-equilibrium Green's function formalism for radiative heat transfer