Near-field radiative heat transfer between closely spaced graphene and amorphous SiO2

Abstract

We study the near-field radiative energy transfer between graphene and an amorphous SiO2 substrate. In comparison with the existing theories of near-field radiative heat transfer our theory takes into account that the free carriers in graphene are moving relative to the substrate with a drift velocity v. In this case the heat flux is determined by both thermal and quantum fluctuations. We find that quantum fluctuations give an important contribution to the radiative energy transfer for low temperatures and high electric field (large drift velocities). For nonsuspended graphene the near-field radiative energy transfer gives a significant contribution to the heat transfer in addition to the contribution from phononic coupling. For suspended graphene (large separation) the corresponding radiative energy transfer coefficient at a nanoscale gap is ~3 orders of magnitude larger than radiative heat transfer coefficient of the blackbody radiation limit. © 2011 American Physical Society.