arXiv subjects

Philippe Ben-Abdallah

Publications and source records attributed to Philippe Ben-Abdallah.

102 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Three-body amplification of photon heat tunneling

Resonant tunneling of surface polaritons across a subwavelength vacuum gap between two polar or metallic bodies at different temperatures leads to an almost monochromatic heat transfer which can exceed by several orders of magnitude the far-field upper limit predicted by Planck's blackbody theory. However, despite its strong magnitude, this transfer is very far from the maximum theoretical limit predicted in near-field. Here we propose an amplifier for the photon heat tunneling based on a passive relay system intercalated between the two bodies, which is able to partially compensate the intrinsic exponential damping of energy transmission probability thanks to three-body interaction mechanisms. As an immediate corollary, we show that the exalted transfer observed in near-field between two media can be exported at larger separation distances using such a relay. Photon heat tunneling assisted by three-body interactions enables novel applications for thermal management at nanoscale, near-field energy conversion and infrared spectroscopy.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Tip-sample electromagnetic interaction in the infrared: Effective polarizabilities, retarded image dipole model and near-field thermal radiation detection

We analyse how a probing particle modifies infrared electromagnetic near fields. The particle, assimilated to both electric and magnetic dipoles, represents the tip of an apertureless scanning optical near-field microscope (SNOM). We show that the interaction can be accounted for by ascribing to the particle effective dipole polarizabilities that add the effect of retardation to the one of the image dipole. Apart from these polarizabilities, the SNOM signal expression depends only on the fields without tip perturbation, shown to be closely related to the electromagnetic density of states (EM-LDOS) and essentially linked to the sample's optical properties, so that measuring local spectra of heated samples is equivalent to performing a local surface spectroscopy. We also analyse the case where the probing particle is hotter. We evaluate in this case the impact of the effective polarizabilities on the tip-sample near-field radiative heat transfer. We also show that such an heated probe above a surface also performs a surface spectroscopy. The calculations agree well with available experimental data.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2011

Many-body radiative heat transfer theory

In this Letter a N-body theory for the radiative heat exchange in thermally non equilibrated discrete systems of finite size objects is presented. We report strong exaltation effects of heat flux which can be explained only by taking into account the presence of many body interactions. Our theory extends the standard Polder and van Hove stochastic formalism used to evaluate heat exchanges between two objects isolated from their environment to a collection of objects in mutual interaction. It gives a natural theoretical framework to investigate the photon heat transport properties of complex systems at mesoscopic scale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Modulation of near-field heat transfer between two gratings

We present a theoretical study of near-field heat transfer between two uniaxial anisotropic planar structures. We investigate how the distance and relative orientation (with respect to their optical axes) between the objects affect the heat flux. In particular, we show that by changing the angle between the optical axes it is possible in certain cases to modulate the net heat flux up to 90% at room temperature, and discuss possible applications of such a strong effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Nanoscale heat flux between anisotropic uniaxial media

We present a theoretical study of near-field heat transfer between two anisotropic materials separated by a small vacuum gap and maintained in a stationary non-equilibrium thermal situation. By combining standard stochastic electrodynamics and the Maxwell-Garnett description for effective media, we show that heat flux can be significantly enhanced by air inclusions. This result is explained by : (a) the presence of extraordinary surface waves that give rise to supplementary channels for heat transfer throughout the gap, (b) an increase in the contribution given by the ordinary surface waves at resonance, (c) and the appearance of frustrated modes over a broad spectral range.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Fundamental limits for non-contact transfers between two bodies

We investigate energy and momentum non-contact exchanges between two arbitrary flat media separated by a gap. This problem is revisited as a transmission problem of individual system eigenmodes weighted by a transmission probability obtained either from fluctuational electrodynamics or quantum field theory. An upper limit for energy and momentum flux is derived using a general variational approach. The corresponding optimal reflectivity coefficients are given both for identical and different media in interaction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Surface Bloch waves mediated heat transfer between two photonic crystals

We theoretically investigate the non-radiative heat transfer between two photonic crystals separated by a small gap in non-equilibrium thermal situation. We predict that the surface Bloch states coupling supported by these media can make heat exchanges larger than those measured at the same separation distance between two massive homogeneous materials made with the elementary components of photonic crystals. These results could find broad applications in near-field technologies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2009

Tailoring the local density of states of non-radiative field at the surface of nanolayered materials

The ability to artificially grow in a controllable manner at nanoscale, from modern deposition techniques, complex structural configurations made with metallic, polar and semiconductors materials raises today the issue of the "best" achievable inner structure to tailor the near-field properties of a nanostructured medium. In the present work we make a step towards the rational design of these materials by reporting numerical experimentations demonstrating the possibility of identifying structural configurations of layered metallodielectric media specifically designed to control the electromagnetic density of states in the close vicinity of their surface. These results could find broad applications in near-field technologies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2008

Enhanced Thermal Conductivity in Nanofluids Under the Action of Oscillating Force Fields

The thermal conductivity of nanoparticles colloidal suspensions, submitted to the action of an external force field has been calculated by non equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. For driven forces in the radio frequency and microwave ranges, we show that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids can be strongly enhanced without cluster formation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Heat Transfer Through Near-Field Interactions in Nanofluids

Using the Landauer-Buttiker theory we calculate the thermal conductance associated to plasmons modes in one dimensional arrays of nanoparticles closely spaced in a host fluid. Our numerical simulations show that the near-field interactions between particles have a negligible effect on the thermal conductivity of nanoparticles colloidal solutions (nanofluids).

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Heat Transport Through Plasmonic Interactions in Closely Spaced Metallic Nanoparticles Chains

We report a numerical investigation on the heat transfer through one dimensional arrays of metallic nanoparticles closely spaced in a host material. Our simulations show that the multipolar interactions play a crucial role in the heat transport via collective plasmons. Calculations of the plasmonic thermal conductance and of the thermal conductivity in ballistic and diffusive regime, respectively have been carried out. (a) Using the Landauer-Buttiker formalism we have found that, when the host material dielectric constant takes positive values, the multipolar interactions drastically enhance by several order of magnitude the ballistic thermal conductance of collective plasmons compared with that of a classical dipolar chain. On the contrary, when the host material dielectric constant takes negative values, we have demonstrated the existence of non-ballistic multipolar modes which annihilate the heat transfer through the chains. (b) Using the kinetic theory we have also examined the thermal behavior of chains in the diffusion approximation. We have shown that the plasmonic thermal conductivity of metallic nanoparticle chains can reach 1% of the bulk metal thermal conductivity . This result could explain the anomalously high thermal conductivity observed in many colloïdal suspensions, the so called nanofluids.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Thermal antenna behavior for thin films structures

We show that under proper conditions thin films structures behave like thermal sources that are able to emit radiation in well defined directions over a broad spectral band for both polarization states of light. This effect results from the quantization of modes inside the structure as in a Fabry-Perot resonator. A theoretical demonstration of this effect is given using the matrix transfer method. This result is similar to the best efficient reported results with gratings but using a completely different physical principle [J. J. Greffet et al., Nature 416, 61 (2002)].

cond-mat.mes-hall↗