Radiative heat transfer between spatially nonlocally responding dielectric objects

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates radiative heat transfer between a spatially dispersive sphere and a half-space, revealing significant modifications at nanometer scales and resolving divergences present in local models.

Contribution

It introduces a boundary condition-free method to compute reflection coefficients for spatially dispersive objects, advancing the understanding of heat transfer at nanoscales.

Findings

Significant spectral heat transfer modifications at ~1nm distances

Absence of divergences in spatially dispersive models

Methodology applicable to complex geometries

Abstract

We calculate numerically the heat transfer rate between a spatially dispersive sphere and a half-space. By utilising Huygens' principle and the extinction theorem, we derive the necessary reflection coefficients at the sphere and the plate without the need to resort to additional boundary conditions. We find for small distances $d\sim 1$nm a significant modification of the spectral heat transfer rate due to spatial dispersion. As a consequence, the spurious divergencies that occur in spatially local approach are absent.