Multi-band near-field radiative heat transfer between two anisotropic fishnet metamaterials

Abstract

We study the near-field radiative heat transfer between two metal–insulator–metal sandwiched-like fishnet metamaterials (FMMs) by fluctuation electrodynamics. Results show that multi-band heat flux between the fishnet metamaterials is achieved, which is attributed to the thermally excited surface modes within the FMM. Apart from the electric response mode of the near-field heat flux, magnetic modes are also existed, which are related with the excitations of the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating on the outer surface of metal (external SPPs) and along the inner metal–dielectric interface (internal SPPs). Moreover, we show that the electromagnetic parameters of this anisotropic fishnet metamaterial depend on the angles θ of the incident light when heating the fishnet metamaterial, and thus the overall effect of the anisotropic FMM parameters is considered to predict the near-field radiative heat transfer. Different external-SPPs and internal-SPPs modes are excited at different frequencies which is attributed to the anisotropic electromagnetic response of FMM, which open new frequency channels of the near-field radiative heat transfer. This kind of anisotropic metamaterial should assist in thermal management in nanoscale.