High enhancement of near-field radiative heat transfer between nanoparticles via the surface modes of the dielectric thin film

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer Vol. 190; p. 122711
• Main Authors: Fang, Jie-Long, Qu, Lei, Zhang, Yong, Yi, Hong-Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Amplification; Dipole approximation; Dipoles; Dissimilar materials; Electric fields; Flux density; Green's function; Green's functions; Half spaces; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Nanoparticles; Near-field radiative heat transfer; Polaritons; Radiative heat transfer; Silicon carbide; Spectrum analysis; Surface phonon polaritons; Thin film; Thin films; Nanoparticles; Surface phonon polaritons; Green's function; Near-field radiative heat transfer; Dipole approximation; Thin film
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2022.122711

•We study the radiative heat transfer between two nanoparticles placed above the thin dielectric film.•The surface mode of thin film can strongly couple with the particle resonance.•The presence of the SiC thin film produces four orders of magnitude of amplification in heat transfer between two particles.•We address the role of the interparticle distance in the enhancement effect of heat flux by analyzing the SPhPs propagation length.•The thin film intensifies the SPhPs-SPPs coupling between SiC and doped Si particles,significantly enhancing heat-transfer between two particles with dissimilar materials. We study the radiative heat transfer between two nanoparticles placed above the thin film under the framework of the dipole approximation and reflection Green's function. We show a high enhancement of heat transfer between particles, owing to the antisymmetric and symmetric surface modes excited at a wide band. The presence of the SiC thin film produces four orders of magnitude of amplification for the case of SiC particles which support the localized surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs). Enhancement is caused by the intense surface modes excited at the particle resonance and further proved through spectral analysis. The thin film can also provide an enhancement at a considerable distance, different from the huge inhibitory effect exhibited in the semi-infinite slab case. We address the role of the interparticle distance in the enhancement of heat flux by analyzing the SPhPs propagation length above the thin film. Finally, we show the thin film can intensify the coupling between SiC and doped Si particles, bringing out a high enhancement of radiative heat transfer between two particles with dissimilar materials. This enhancement is also attributed to the strong antisymmetric modes that amplify the emitted electric field energy density in the half-space from the SiC particle. This type of strong amplification can play an essential role in thermal tuning in the nanoparticle system.