Radiative heat transfer between nanostructures - art. no. 205404

We use a general theory of the fluctuating electromagnetic field and a gene ralized Kirchhoff's law (Ref. 8) to calculate the heat transfer between mac roscopic and nanoscale bodies of arbitrary shape, dispersive, and absorptiv e dielectric properties. We study the heat transfer between: (a) two parall el semi-infinite bodies, (b) a semi-infinite body acid a spherical body, an d (c) two spherical bodies. We consider the dependence of the heat transfer on the temperature T, the shape and the separation d, and discuss the role of nonlocal and retardation effects. We find that for low-resistivity mate rial the heat transfer is dominated by retardation effects even for the ver y short separations.