Enhanced thermal emission from individual antenna-like nanoheaters

Here we report polarization-sensitive, thermal radiation measurements of individual, antenna-like, thin film Platinum nanoheaters. These heaters confine the lateral extent of the heated area to dimensions smaller ( or comparable) to the thermal emission wavelengths. For very narrow heater structures the polarization of the thermal radiation shows a very high extinction ratio as well as a dipolar-like angular radiation pattern. A simple analysis of the radiation intensities suggests a significant enhancement of the thermal radiation for these very narrow heater structures. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.