Heat flow in thin films via surface phonon-polaritons

Abstract

We present a calculation of the thermally generated electromagnetic flux propagating along the in-plane direction of a polar, thin film. The approach is based on fluctuational electrodynamics and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We find that for silicon carbide films between 5 nm and 100 nm thick, the thinner films transport more in-plane flux due to the long propagation length of the anti-symmetric surface phonon-polariton mode. Comparison of results obtained from the fluctuation-dissipation approach and the kinetic theory approach shows favorable agreement.