Far- and Near-Field Heat Transfer in Transdimensional Plasmonic Film Systems

TL;DR

This paper compares nonlocal and local electromagnetic models to study heat transfer in ultrathin plasmonic films, revealing that nonlocal effects significantly influence far- and near-field heat transfer behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlocal electromagnetic response model for transdimensional plasmonic films, showing its impact on heat transfer predictions compared to the standard local Drude model.

Findings

Nonlocal model predicts greater Woltersdorff length in the far-field.

Larger film thicknesses are identified where surface plasmons dominate heat transfer.

Nonlocal effects enhance near-field heat currents in ultrathin films.

Abstract

We compare the confinement-induced nonlocal electromagnetic response model to the standard local Drude model routinely used in plasmonics. Both of them are applied to study the heat transfer for transdimensional plasmonic film systems. The former provides greater Woltersdorff length in the far-field and larger film thicknesses at which heat transfer is dominated by surface plasmons, leading to enhanced near-field heat currents. Our results show that the nonlocal response model is capable of making a significant impact on the understanding of the radiative heat transfer in ultrathin films.