Control of near-field radiative heat transfer based on anisotropic 2D materials

TL;DR

This paper investigates how anisotropic 2D materials can significantly enhance near-field radiative heat transfer through hyperbolic plasmonic modes, with tunable effects based on twisting angles, promising for thermal nano-devices.

Contribution

It introduces the control of near-field heat transfer using anisotropic 2D materials and analyzes the impact of hyperbolic plasmonic modes and twisting angles.

Findings

Heat transfer can be enhanced by orders-of-magnitude over blackbody limit.

Thermal modulation depends on the twisted angle of principal axes.

Hyperbolic plasmonic modes play a key role in heat transfer enhancement.

Abstract

In this work, we study the near-field radiative heat transfer between two suspended sheets of anisotropic 2D materials. It is found that the radiative heat transfer can be enhanced with orders-of-magnitude over the blackbody limit for nanoscale separation. The enhancement is attributed to the excitation of anisotropic and hyperbolic plasmonic modes. Meanwhile, a large thermal modulation effect, depending on the twisted angle of principal axes between the upper and bottom sheets of anisotropic 2D materials, is revealed. The near-field radiative heat transfer for different concentrations of electron is demonstrated and the role of hyperbolic plasmonic modes is analyzed. Our finding of radiative heat transfer between anisotropic 2D materials may find promising applications in thermal nano-devices, such as non-contact thermal modulators, thermal lithography, thermos-photovoltaics, etc.