Radiative heat transfer as a Landauer-Büttiker problem

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Thermodynamics

Background:

• Radiative heat transfer between surfaces is crucial in many applications.
• Modeling complex systems often requires advanced theoretical frameworks.
• Understanding heat flow at interfaces is key to controlling thermal properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate radiative heat transfer between two semi-infinite half-spaces with conductive interfaces.
• To reframe this problem as a four-terminal mesoscopic transport phenomenon.
• To utilize Rytov's fluctuational electrodynamics and Kirchhoff's law for analysis.

Main Methods:

• Interpreting the setup as a four-terminal mesoscopic transport problem.
• Modeling slabs and interfaces as bosonic reservoirs coupled to a scattering center.
• Applying Rytov's fluctuational electrodynamics and Kirchhoff's circuital law.
• Calculating heat flow and evaluating the conductance matrix.

Main Results:

• The radiative heat transfer problem was successfully mapped to a Landauer-Büttiker transport problem.
• Explicit evaluation of the conductance matrix was achieved.
• Büttiker symmetry was readily verified, confirming the model's validity.

Conclusions:

• Radiative heat transfer in layered media with conductive interfaces can be effectively treated as a Landauer-Büttiker transport problem.
• This approach provides a powerful framework for analyzing complex thermal transport phenomena.
• The study validates the application of mesoscopic transport theory to radiative heat transfer.