Energy density above a resonant metamaterial in the GHz: an alternative to near-field thermal emission detection

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experiment to detect microwave-range radiative heat transfer using a tungsten metamaterial array, enabling analysis of near-field emission and homogenization theory at sub-wavelength scales.

Contribution

It introduces a low-cost tungsten metamaterial design with a surface plasmon in the GHz range for thermal emission detection and analysis of near-field effects.

Findings

Design of a tungsten 3D wire array with a plasmon at 2.9 GHz

Potential to detect enhanced thermal emission above ambient levels

A tool to study homogenization and non-local dielectric properties

Abstract

This paper proposes an experiment to easily detect radiative heat transfer in the microwave range. Following an idea given by Pendry more than a decade ago [1], we show that a 3D array of tungsten 2micron radius wires with a 1 cm period makes a low cost material exhibiting a surface plasmon in the microwave range around 2.9 GHz. Such a heated material should exhibit an emission peak near the plasmon frequency well above ambient emission. Analysis of the signal detected in the near-field should also be a tool to analyze how homogenization theory applies when the distance to the material is of the order of the metamaterial period. It could also be give a model to non-local dielectric properties in the same conditions.