Abstract
Radiative thermal transport via the fluctuating electromagnetic near-field has recently attracted increasing attention due to its fundamental importance and its impact on a range of applications from data storage to thermal management and energy conversion. After a brief historical account of radiative thermal transport, we summarize the basics of fluctuational electrodynamics, a theoretical framework for the study of radiative heat transfer in terms of thermally excited propagating and evanescent electromagnetic waves. Various approaches to modeling near-field thermal transport are briefly discussed, together with key results and proposals for manipulation and utilization of radiative heat flow. Subsequently, we review the experimental advances in the characterization of both near-field heat flow and energy density. We conclude with remarks on the opportunities and challenges for future explorations of radiative heat transfer at the nanoscale.
Highlights
Thermal radiation is universal to all objects at non-zero absolute temperatures as electromagnetic radiative emissions necessarily accompany thermally driven random motions of electric charges
After a brief historical account of radiative thermal transport, we summarize the basics of fluctuational electrodynamics, a theoretical framework for the study of radiative heat transfer in terms of thermally excited propagating and evanescent electromagnetic waves
Benefiting from decades of progress in computational classical electrodynamics, the past few years have seen the establishment of quite a few numerical formalisms, many of which are capable of calculating radiative heat transfer between bodies of arbitrary shapes and materials across a range of physically meaningful separations
Summary
Thermal radiation is universal to all objects at non-zero absolute temperatures as electromagnetic radiative emissions necessarily accompany thermally driven random motions of electric charges. Rytov’s fluctuational electrodynamics around the early 1950s,15,16 allowed for the first time direct and detailed mathematical descriptions that related thermal radiation to its origin in the random fluctuations of charges, which represented a significant step beyond discussions of equilibrium distribution of radiation from unspecified sources. V with a brief discussion of the opportunities and challenges in future exploration of radiative heat transfer
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