Modeling energy exchange and heating within nanorod arrays due to near-field radiative coupling

Abstract

We present a heat transfer model to obtain the temperature distribution within aligned nanorod arrays. The model includes thermal conduction along each nanorod in addition to a phenomenological treatment of near-field radiative energy exchange among the nanorods and allows us to investigate the interplay between these effects. The contribution of the near-field radiative energy exchange to overall heating is found to increase significantly with a decrease in inter-nanorod spacing and an increase in array size; the effect is also more prominent for nanorods with lower thermal conductivity and higher emissivity.