Many-body interaction on near-field radiative heat transfer between two nanoparticles caused by proximate particle ensembles

Abstract: Near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) has received growing attention because of its high intensity far beyond the Planck's black-body limit. Insertion of a third object in proximity of the two articles can significantly influence and manipulate its NFRHT. However, for the system composed of many particles, the effect of many-body interaction (MBI) on NFRHT between arbitrary two particles is still not well understood. In this work, the MBI is studied for two particles with three typical proximate ensembles: particle chain, plane and grating. With the increasing of proximate particle size, the MBI on NFRHT will experience a radical change from inhibition to enhancement. The polarizability of the proximate particle increases with particle radius, which enhances the interaction between the proximate particles and the main particle, and then results in enhancement of NFRHT between the main particles. When twisting the proximate particle ensemble, the proximate MBI accounts for a smooth and non-oscillated twisting angle dependence of NFRHT, different from the oscillation phenomenon of NFRHT for particle gratings. This work deepens the understanding of NFRHT in dense particulate systems.