2012/01/31 by Ognjen Ilic, Marinko Jablan, John D. Joannopoulos +4
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamic Systems and Engines #Atomic physics #Common emitter #Condensed matter physics #Doping #Excited state #Field (mathematics) #Graphene #Materials science #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Nanotechnology #Near and far field #Optics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Plasmon #Polariton #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermal radiation #Thermodynamics #Thermophotovoltaic #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.85.155422
4 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2012/03/17 · openalex publication_date 2012/04/11 · arxiv updated 2013/05/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
It is shown that thermally excited plasmon-polariton modes can strongly mediate, enhance, and tune the near-field radiation transfer between two closely separated graphene sheets. The dependence of near-field heat exchange on doping and electron relaxation time is analyzed in the near infrared within the framework of fluctuational electrodynamics. The dominant contribution to heat transfer can be controlled to arise from either interband or intraband processes. We predict maximum transfer at low doping and for plasmons in two graphene sheets in resonance, with orders-of-magnitude enhancement (e.g., 102 to 103 for separations between 0.1 \ensuremathμm and 10 nm) over the Stefan-Boltzmann law, known as the far-field limit. Strong, tunable, near-field transfer offers the promise of an externally controllable thermal switch as well as a novel hybrid graphene-graphene thermoelectric/thermophotovoltaic energy conversion platform.