Magnetic field effects in the near-field radiative heat transfer between planar structures

Abstract

One of the main challenges in the field of thermal radiation is to actively control the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between closely spaced bodies. In this context, the use of an external magnetic field has emerged as a very attractive possibility and a plethora of physical phenomena have been put forward in the last few years. Here, we predict some additional magneticfield-induced phenomena that can take place in the context of NFRHT between planar layered structures containing magneto-optical (MO) materials (mainly doped semiconductors like InSb). In particular, we predict the possibility of increasing the NFRHT upon applying an external magnetic field in an asymmetric structure consisting of two infinite plates made of InSb and Au. We also study the impact of a magnetic field in the NFRHT between structures containing MO thin films and show that the effect is more drastic than in their bulk counterparts. Finally, we systematically investigate the anisotropic thermal magnetoresistance, i.e., the dependence of the radiative heat conductance on the orientation of an external magnetic field, in the case of two infinite plates made of InSb and show that one can strongly modulate the NFRHT by simply changing the orientation of the magnetic field. All the phenomena predicted in this work can be experimentally tested with existent technology and provide a new insight into the topic of active control of NFRHT.

Smart thermal management with near-field thermal radiation

“…As shown in the previous section MO materials can also be used to control actively the near-field heat exchanges between two solids using an external magnetic field. This possibility has been first suggested by Moncada-Villa et al [56,57] who have shown that a change of the magnitude of magnetic field can significantly modify both the nature and the coupling of evenescent modes. More recently new thermomagnetic effects in MO systems [19,58] have opened the way to a new strategy for controlling near-field heat exchanges.…”

“…Recent works have combined MO materials and dielectrics in a hyperbolic multilayer structure [58,59], because on the one hand the formation of hyperbolic bands can increase the near-field radiative heat flux in such systems [60][61][62] and on the other hand the application of a magnetic field enables a significant active modulation of the heat flux. However, it seems that the effective medium calculations in [57] predict an increasement of the near-field heat flux for extremely large magnetic fields, whereas the exact calculations in [59] predict a heat flux reduction for moderately large magnetic fields.…”

Near-field radiative heat transfer between one-dimensional magneto-photonic crystals

“…Thus, for instance, it has been predicted that the lack of reciprocity in MO systems can lead to novel phenomena such as a near-field thermal Hall effect [33] or the existence of a persistent heat current [34]. It has also been theoretically demonstrated that MO systems under a static magnetic field can exhibit many phenomena that are the near-field thermal analogues of basic transport effects in the field of spintronics such as giant thermal magnetoresistance [35] or anisotropic thermal magnetoresistance [36,37]. Many of these phenomena have been reviewed in Refs.…”

Twist-induced control of near-field heat radiation between magnetic Weyl semimetals

“…For novel applications, it is of importance to actively control NFRHT. Several strategies have been proposed, such as applying an electric field to phase-change materials [24] or ferroelectric materials [25], applying an external magnetic field to magnetooptical materials [26][27][28][29][30][31], using drift currents [32,33], and regulating the chemical potential of photons [34]. Another active control strategy is to utilize the rotational degree of freedom [35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”