
5
can write:
Eij (r,r0, ω) = ¯hω
e
¯hω
kBT−1
µ0ω
2πIm[GE
ij (r,r0, ω)].
A similar procedure can be applied to the magnetic field,
using its field’s correlation and dyadic Green’s function.
Adding the electric and magnetic contributions, and con-
sidering only the positive frequencies, it is possible to
obtain the local spectral energy density:
φ(r, ω) = ¯hω
e
¯hω
kBT−1
ω
πc2Im{Tr[GE(r,r0, ω)+GH(r,r0, ω)]},
from which the local density of states can be written as:
LDOSNF =ω
πc2Im{Tr[GE(r,r0, ω)+GH(r,r0, ω)]}.(6)
The Green’s functions in Eq. 6 depend on the consid-
ered geometry. Importantly, in vacuum, Im[Tr(GE)] =
Im[Tr(GH)]. From the boundary conditions at infinity
r→ ∞, one retrieves the DOSFF which we wrote in
Eq. 5. There are also geometries for which the magnetic
Green’s function is negligible compared to the electric
one, leading to a simplified expression for the LDOS. For
example, if we consider a planar emitter, calculating the
fields at a distance dλ, in other words in the qua-
sistatic limit, for some materials it is possible to approx-
imate the LDOS as62:
LDOSNF =1
4π2ωd3
Im[ε(ω)]
|ε(ω)+1|2,(7)
where εis the dielectric function of the emitting material,
which is a function of frequency. This approximation is
useful for obtaining insight on two important concepts.
Firstly, we see that in the lossless limit (Im[(ω)] →0),
the LDOSNF vanishes and no thermal emission occurs,
as expected. This unveils clearly the tight link between
optical losses and thermal radiation. Secondly, Eq. 7 is
instructive to understand near field heat transfer in the
presence of polaritons.
Polaritons are quasiparticles which derive from the col-
lective oscillation of light and matter. For example, they
appear in materials which present a large enough carrier
density and mobility, such as metals, to allow the elec-
trons to undergo oscillations driven by the electric field
at given frequencies. In the following, unless specified,
we will use the terms “metals” and “plasmonic mate-
rials” interchangeably. Analogously, in polar dielectric
materials, phonon polaritons can be excited from the
coupling between the electromagnetic field with the ma-
terial’s optical phonons63–65. In the following, this type
of material will be referred to as “polar material”. In
both cases, the excitation of a polariton is dependent on
the frequency of the incident light. Therefore, the re-
sponse function of a polaritonic material will be resonant
around a frequency, at which matter (charge or lattice
vibration in plasmonic and polar media, respectively) is
oscillating synchronously with the excitation, with min-
imal lag66. This response function is given by the lin-
ear polarizability of the material, which is proportional
to the dielectric function67. The two resonant models
most commonly used to describe the dielectric function
of polaritonic materials are the Drude model, suitable for
metals, and the Lorentz model, suitable for polar semi-
conductors and dielectrics68,69. According to the Drude
model, the dielectric function of a plasmonic material can
be written as:
εpl(ω) = ε∞ 1−ω2
p
ω2−iγω !,(8)
where ε∞is the the dielectric constant evaluated at the
limit for very high frequencies, usually ε∞≈1 for metals,
ωpis the plasma frequency and γis the damping rate due
to the oscillating electrons colliding with each other. The
Lorentz model, on the other hand, predicts the dielectric
function for a polar material70:
εpo(ω) = ε∞1 + ω2
LO −ω2
TO
ω2
TO −ω2−iγω ,(9)
with ωLO and ωTO being the resonant frequencies cor-
responding to the longitudinal and transverse optical
phonon resonances in the polaritonic material71–73. The
frequencies ωTO and ωLO delimit the region in which the
dielectric function of the material is negative, which de-
fines the Reststrahlen band64,74.
In Fig. 4, the real part of the dielectric function of a
metal (Drude) and a polar dielectric (Lorentz) material
are plotted in orange and blue, respectively.
At the resonance frequency of a polaritonic
material64,65, when (ω) = −1, the LDOSNF res-
onates. Therefore, when polaritonic excitations are
available, the LDOS in the NF can dramatically exceed
the DOS of the FF, leading to a spectral energy density
which surpasses the blackbody spectrum in magni-
tude. In this case, it is often said that one can obtain
“super-Planckian” thermal emission76. Moving away
from the emitter, the magnitude of the fields decreases
exponentially, and both the LDOSNF and the thermal
emission spectrum ought to converge to their FF value,
which is independent of the distance.
Where does the difference between thermal NF and FF
come from? As discussed above, in contrast to the FF,
waves that occur in the NF have an in-plane wavevector
component kt=qk2
x+k2
ythat lies outside the vacuum
lightcone as shown in Fig. 2(d), in other words kt> k0.
Since the total wavevector satisfies k=|k|=pk2
t+k2
z,
this requires kz∈ I. This explains the exponential decay
of the evanescent excitation in the direction orthogonal
to ktin vacuum, which we can refer to as zwithout loss
of generality (following the reference system of Fig. 2
(a, b)). Hence, along z, the field does not propagate,
This is the author’s peer reviewed, accepted manuscript. However, the online version of record will be different from this version once it has been copyedited and typeset.
PLEASE CITE THIS ARTICLE AS DOI: 10.1063/5.0134951