Heat transfer between a nano-tip and a surface

TL;DR

This paper investigates quasi-ballistic heat transfer between a hot nano-tip and a surface using Monte Carlo simulations, revealing efficient localized heating with high temporal resolution.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed Monte Carlo analysis of nanometer-scale heat transfer between a nano-tip and a surface, quantifying thermal conductance and heat flux distribution.

Findings

Thermal conductance reaches 0.8 MW/m²K under the tip

Heat flux forms a nanometer-scale thermal spot

Temporal resolution of heat transfer is a few tens of picoseconds

Abstract

We study quasi-ballistic heat transfer through air between a hot nanometer-scale tip and a sample. The hot tip/surface configuration is widely used to perform nonintrusive confined heating. Using a Monte-Carlo simulation, we find that the thermal conductance reaches 0.8 MW.m-2K-1 on the surface under the tip and show the shape of the heat flux density distribution (nanometer-scale thermal spot). These results show that a surface can be efficiently heated locally without contact. The temporal resolution of the heat transfer is a few tens of picoseconds.