Investigation of heat transfer modes in plasmonic nanoparticles

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer Vol. 156; p. 119869
• Main Authors: Yuksel, Anil, Yu, Edward T., Cullinan, Michael, Murthy, Jayathi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Electromagnetic fields; Energy transfer; Heat transfer; Interfacial thermal conductance; Laser beam heating; Laser sintering; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Near-field thermal energy transport; Plasmonic nanoparticles; Plasmonics; Temperature effects; Thermal conductivity; Near-field thermal energy transport; Interfacial thermal conductance; Plasmonic nanoparticles
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2020.119869

•We believe, it is the first time the mechanisms of thermal transport between the plasmonic nanoparticles suspended in medium was investigated.•It was observed that overall Goverallconduction was dominated by Gcontact, between the nanoparticles that are in contact.•Grad was not seen an important mode of heat transfer which is at least four orders of magnitude lower than the heat transfer due to conduction between the particles.•When Gcontact < 20 MW/m2K conduction heat transfer from the plasmonic nanoparticles to the air could become important.•Particle size and contact radius were observed to affect the contribution of the heat transfer modes which provide insight into designing novel nanoparticle self-assemblies to enhance the thermal transport between the plasmonic nanoparticles. There has been much recent interest in understanding heat transfer in nanoparticle packings in nanotechnology such as emerging photonics applications. In this paper, we analyze heat transfer between two plasmonic nanoparticles in finite contact and suspended in air to delineate the dominant modes of heat transfer. We have previously investigated the heat transfer analysis of laser heating in a nanoparticle packing such that interfacial thermal conductance between the nanoparticle packings in contact and the predicted average nanoparticle packing temperature matches with the observations of laser sintering temperature well when GIC is about 20 (MW/m2K). When GIC is less than 20 (MW/m2K), the primary pathway for heat transfer is that across the particle-air-particle interface. Thermal transport in these assemblies is subject to electromagnetic field enhancements due to near-field energy transfer; however, we show that radiation heat transfer between the nanoparticles is not a significant heat transport mode. Sub-continuum thermal effects are found to strongly retard overall thermal transport between the particles through the air pathway.