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Near-field radiative heat transfer between arbitrarily-shaped objects and a surface

A fluctuational electrodynamics-based formalism for calculating near-field radiative heat transfer between objects of arbitrary size and shape and an infinite surface is presented. The surface interactions are treated analytically via Sommerfeld's theory of electric dipole radiation above an infinite plane. The volume integral equation for the electric field is discretized using the thermal discrete dipole approximation (T-DDA). The framework is verified against exact results in the sphere-surface configuration, and is applied to analyze near-field radiative heat transfer between a complex-shaped probe and an infinite plane both made of silica. It is found that when the probe tip size is approximately equal to or smaller than the gap d separating the probe and the surface, coupled localized surface phonon (LSPh)-surface phonon-polariton (SPhP) mediated heat transfer occurs. In this regime, the net spectral heat rate exhibits four resonant modes due to LSPhs along the minor axis of the probe while the net total heat rate in the near field follows a d -0.3 power law. Conversely, when the probe tip size is much larger than the separation gap d, heat transfer is mediated by SPhPs resulting in two resonant modes in the net spectral heat rate corresponding to those of a single emitting silica surface while the net total heat rate approaches a d -2 power law. It is also demonstrated that a complex-shaped probe can be approximated by a prolate spheroidal electric dipole when the thermal wavelength is larger than the major axis of the spheroidal dipole and when the separation gap d is much larger than the radius of curvature of the dipole tip facing the surface.