1207.0263 (P. J. van Zwol et al.)

Observation of enhanced nanoscale radiative heat flow due to surface
plasmons in graphene and doped silicon    [PDF]

P. J. van Zwol, S. Thiele, C. Berger, W. A. de Heer, J. Chevrier

Owing to its two dimensional electronic structure, graphene exhibits many unique properties. One of them is a wave vector and temperature dependent plasmon in the infrared range. Theory predicts that due to these plasmons, graphene can be used as a universal material to enhance nanoscale radiative heat exchange for any dielectric substrate. Here we report on radiative heat transfer experiments between SiC and SiO2 which have non matching phonon polariton frequencies, and thus only weakly exchange heat in near field. We observed that graphene epitaxially grown on SiC markedly enhanced the near field heat flux to the SiO2 sphere of our setup. The influence of plasmons on radiative heat transfer is further supported with measurements for doped silicon. These results highlight graphene's strong potential in photonic nearfield and energy conversion devices.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0263