Ultrasmall penetration depth in nanoscale thermal radiation

作者：Basu S^*; Zhang Z M

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 95(13): 133104.

DOI：10.1063/1.3238315

Near-field thermal radiation can significantly exceed that predicted by the Stefan-Boltzmann law, especially when surface polaritons are excited such that the energy transfer is through photon tunneling. The penetration depth, or skin depth, of evanescent waves is usually a few tenths of a wavelength. This letter demonstrates that an extremely small skin depth (on the order of a nanometer) can exist for nanoscale thermal radiation between two plates separated by a vacuum gap, even though the dominant wavelengths are in the infrared. Furthermore, the skin depth is proportional to the separation distance.

• 出版日期2009-9-28