Role of disorder in plasmon-assisted near-field heat transfer between two-dimensional metals

Abstract

We perform a theoretical study of the near-field heat transfer between two atomically thin metallic layers, isolated galvanically but coupled by the Coulomb interaction, within the framework of fluctuational electrodynamics in the Coulomb limit. We clarify the role of disorder and spatial dispersion, and identify several distinct regimes of the heat transfer. We find that the plasmon contribution to the heat current is suppressed in both the clean and diffusive limits, but dominates in a parametrically wide crossover region at sufficiently high temperatures.