Study of radiative heat transfer in Ångström- and nanometre-sized gaps

Longji Cui, Wonho Jeong, Víctor Fernández-Hurtado, Johannes Feist, Francisco J. García-Vidal, Juan Carlos Cuevas (), Edgar Meyhofer () and Pramod Reddy ()
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Longji Cui: University of Michigan
Wonho Jeong: University of Michigan
Víctor Fernández-Hurtado: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Johannes Feist: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Francisco J. García-Vidal: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan Carlos Cuevas: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Edgar Meyhofer: University of Michigan
Pramod Reddy: University of Michigan

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Radiative heat transfer in Ångström- and nanometre-sized gaps is of great interest because of both its technological importance and open questions regarding the physics of energy transfer in this regime. Here we report studies of radiative heat transfer in few Å to 5 nm gap sizes, performed under ultrahigh vacuum conditions between a Au-coated probe featuring embedded nanoscale thermocouples and a heated planar Au substrate that were both subjected to various surface-cleaning procedures. By drawing on the apparent tunnelling barrier height as a signature of cleanliness, we found that upon systematically cleaning via a plasma or locally pushing the tip into the substrate by a few nanometres, the observed radiative conductances decreased from unexpectedly large values to extremely small ones—below the detection limit of our probe—as expected from our computational results. Our results show that it is possible to avoid the confounding effects of surface contamination and systematically study thermal radiation in Ångström- and nanometre-sized gaps.

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14479

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14479

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