Radiative heat transfer between metallic nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper investigates radiative heat transfer between metallic and dielectric nanoparticles, highlighting the dominant dipole interactions and how heat flux depends on particle properties and distance.

Contribution

It introduces polarizability formulas valid for any skin depth and compares heat transfer mechanisms between metallic and dielectric nanoparticles.

Findings

Electric dipole-dipole dominates for dielectric particles

Magnetic dipole-dipole dominates for metallic particles

Distance dependence of heat transfer is similar for both types

Abstract

In this letter, we study the radiative heat transfer between two nanoparticles in the near field and in the far field. We find that the heat transfer is dominated by the electric dipole-dipole interaction for dielectric particles and by the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction for metallic nanoparticles. We introduce polarizabilities formulas valid for arbitrary values of the skin depth. While the heat transfer mechanism is different for metallic and dielectric nanoparticles, we show that the distance dependence is the same. However, the dependence of the heat flux on the particle radius is different.