Enhanced radiative heat transfer via the coupling of multi-particle interactions with combined surface models

Abstract

Radiative heat transfer (RHT) has been playing a pivotal role in the study of all length scales from macroscopic to microscopic. This work aims to theoretically enhance the RHT between nanoparticles in multi-particle and slab systems. The results show that the strong coupling between the multi-particle interactions and the combined slab surface modes including transmission and reflection can significantly enhance the inter-particle RHT at a proper slab thickness, and the maximum amplification ratio can reach up to two orders of magnitude. For larger thicknesses of the slab, the RHT decreases due to the weakening of coupled evanescent models. In addition, we show that adding graphene sheets to both sides of the middle slab produces a surface hybrid model, which can regulate the coupling properties of the multi-particle and slab by changing the chemical potential of graphene. When the resonance frequency of nanoparticles is higher than that of the slab model, the RHT between the particles at both ends increases. Instead, the conclusion is the opposite. This work may exhibit potential applications for enhancing, guiding, and regulating contactless energy management in complex many-body systems at mesoscopic scales.