Topological near-field heat flow in a honeycomb lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates topologically protected edge modes in a honeycomb lattice of plasmonic nanoparticles, revealing significantly enhanced near-field heat transport along the edges due to topological effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates that topologically non-trivial phases enable dominant heat flux through edge modes, leading to substantial heat transport enhancement in plasmonic nanoparticle lattices.

Findings

Edge modes dominate heat transport in the topological phase

Heat flux along edges is 30-50 times larger than in the bulk

Enhanced heat transport occurs in low-dissipation materials

Abstract

We study the near-field thermal radiation of topologically protected edge modes in a honeycomb lattice of plasmonic InSb nanoparticles. We show that the heat transport by near-field interaction is in the topological non-trivial phase dominated by the heat flux channel provided by the edge modes rather than the bulk modes. This heat flux channel allows for an enhanced heat transport along the edges of the honeycomb lattice. In particular for materials with relatively small dissipation we find a 30 to 50 times larger heat flux along the lattice edges than in the bulk.