Application Conditions of Effective Medium Theory in Near Field Radiative Heat Transfer Between Multilayered Metamaterials

Abstract

This work addresses the validity of the local effective medium theory (EMT) in predicting the nearfield radiative heat transfer between multilayered metamaterials, separated by a vacuum gap. Doped silicon and germanium are used to form the metallodielectric superlattice. Different configurations are considered by setting the layers adjacent to the vacuum spacer as metal–metal (MM), metal–dielectric (MD), or dielectric–dielectric (DD) (where M refers to metallic doped silicon and D refers to dielectric germanium). The calculation is based on fluctuational electrodynamics using the Green's function formulation. The cutoff wave vectors for surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and hyperbolic modes are evaluated. Combining the Bloch theory with the cutoff wave vector, the application condition of EMT in predicting nearfield radiative heat transfer is presented quantitatively and is verified by exact calculations based on the multilayer formulation.