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Updated: May 13, 2026

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
A thermokinetic approach to radiative heat transfer at the nanoscale
Agustín Pérez-Madrid1, Luciano C Lapas, J Miguel Rubí
1Departament de Física Fonamental, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain. agustiperezmadrid@ub.edu
Abstract:
Radiative heat exchange at the nanoscale presents a challenge for several areas due to its scope and nature. Here, we provide a thermokinetic description of microscale radiative energy transfer including phonon-photon coupling manifested through a non-Debye relaxation behavior. We show that a lognormal-like distribution of modes of relaxation accounts for this non-Debye relaxation behavior leading to the thermal conductance. We also discuss the validity of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The general expression for the thermal conductance we obtain fits existing experimental results with remarkable accuracy. Accordingly, our approach offers an overall explanation of radiative energy transfer through micrometric gaps regardless of geometrical configurations and distances.
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