Near-field thermal radiation between graphene-covered doped silicon plates

The present work describes a theoretical investigation of the near-field thermal radiation between doped Si plates coated with a monolayer of graphene. It is found that the radiative heat flux between doped Si plates can be either enhanced or suppressed by introducing graphene layer, depending on the Si doping concentration and chemical potential of graphene. Graphene can enhance the heat flux if it matches resonance frequencies of surface plasmon at vacuum-source and vacuum-receiver interfaces. In particular, significant enhancement is achieved when graphene is coated on both surfaces that originally does not support the surface plasmon resonance. The results obtained in this study provide an important guideline into enhancing the near-field thermal radiation between doped Si plates by introducing graphene. (c) 2013 Optical Society of America