A major challenge for the 21th century, across diverse fields of engineering and science, is to precisely understand how energy is transported and converted at the nanoscale, with the ultimate goal of harnessing conversion and transport mechanisms for the development of a wide range of novel technologies, including sustainable energy generation. While radiative thermal transport between macroscopic objects separated by large distances is well understood, radiative heat transfer in the near-field the regime in which the spacing between two surfaces is smaller than the peak wavelength predicted by Wien?s displacement law?is poorly understood. This lack of knowledge is primarily due to experimental challenges in performing accurate, quantitative measurements of near-field radiative heat transport.
This proposal seeks to overcome critical obstacles to near-field radiative heat transport experiments and develop a sensitive, picowatt-resolution calorimetry based, experimental platform to provide the first quantitative measurements of near field radiative heat transfer between parallel surfaces with nanoscale gaps. Further, the experimental approaches developed in this work will enable the utilization of near-field effects to probe DC heat output of microscopic systems with unprecedented resolution.
The techniques and tools that will be developed as part of this work will significantly enrich the field of micro/nanoscale energy transport where the lack of experimental tools to probe near-field radiative transport is a major impediment to progress. Further, this work will enable several other applications such as near-field enabled nanopatterning, and novel metrology measurements. In the long term, the proposed development of near-field enabled DC picowatt resolution calorimetry can have a transformative effect on the study of complex biological systems, particularly individual cells, and give us a wealth of information that can not be obtained through other means. In addition to addressing the technical questions described above, the proposal also incorporates extensive outreach activities to engage undergraduate and graduate students as well as underrepresented minorities in research. Toward this goal the PIs will: 1) recruit three undergraduate students per year for research training, 2) develop a graduate class on near-field thermal transport, 3) incorporate research results and novel heat transfer phenomena into an undergraduate lab class taught by the PIs, and 4) create an educational video based on our research for broader dissemination.
