Near-Field Heat Transfer in a Scanning Thermal Microscope

Achim Kittel, Wolfgang Müller-Hirsch, Jürgen Parisi, Svend-Age Biehs, Daniel Reddig, and Martin Holthaus
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 224301 – Published 22 November 2005

Abstract

We present measurements of the near-field heat transfer between the tip of a thermal profiler and planar material surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. For tip-sample distances below 108m, our results differ markedly from the prediction of fluctuating electrodynamics. We argue that these differences are due to the existence of a material-dependent small length scale below which the macroscopic description of the dielectric properties fails, and discuss a heuristic model which yields fair agreement with the available data. These results are of importance for the quantitative interpretation of signals obtained by scanning thermal microscopes capable of detecting local temperature variations on surfaces.

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  • Received 14 July 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.224301

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Achim Kittel, Wolfgang Müller-Hirsch, Jürgen Parisi, Svend-Age Biehs, Daniel Reddig, and Martin Holthaus

  • Institut für Physik, Carl von Ossietzky Universität, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 22 — 25 November 2005

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