Super-Planckian radiative heat transfer between coplanar two-dimensional metals

Abstract: Using the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we propose a general microscopic framework to investigate the radiative heat transfer (RHT) between coplanar objects with a square lattice. We employ the obtained formulas to two-dimensional (2D) metal configurations with a tight-binding model and the Drude model. Our results reveal that the RHT between coplanar 2D metals is significantly larger than black-body radiation in both the near and far fields, leading to a global super-Planckian RHT. As the separation distance increases, the heat flux density exhibits a rapid decrease in the near field, followed by a slower decrease and eventual $1/d$ dependence in the far field, while maintaining a much higher magnitude than black-body radiation. Evanescent waves dominate the heat transfer in the near field, while propagating waves dominate the far field. Surprisingly, the propagating heat flux remains almost constant over a wide range of distances, resulting in a super-Planckian behavior in the far field. The dispersion relation of the spectrum function reveals distinct contributions from propagating and evanescent waves, with possible origins from surface plasmon resonance. These findings provide insights into the unique characteristics of RHT between coplanar 2D metals and highlight the potential for achieving enhanced heat transfer beyond the black-body limit. Our method is applicable to any coplanar objects with square lattices, paves the way for expanded investigations into various lattice geometries.