Electric field effect in heat transfer between metals in an extreme near field

A. I. Volokitin

Published 2019-04-21Version 1

With increasing interest in nanotechnology, the problem of heat transfer between bodies separated by a vacuum gap of just a few nanometers is becoming increasingly important. Calculations of radiative heat transfer between metals in an extreme near field in presence of electrostatic potential differences between them are given. The potential difference induces a surface charge density, which leads to a strong coupling between the electric field and surface deformation. Due to this coupling the heat flux between two gold plates associated with p -polarized electromagnetic waves increases by six orders of magnitude with a potential difference of 1 Volt. The radiation mechanism of heat transfer is compared with the phonon mechanism, which is associated with the electrostatic interaction between surface deformations due to thermal fluctuations. At subnanometer distances, the phonon and radiation mechanisms give the contributions to the heat flux of the same order. However, with distance, the phonon contribution decays faster than the radiation contribution. The results obtained can be used for the management of heat fluxes at the nanoscale using a potential difference.