Metasurfaces, the two-dimensional (2D) counterpart of metamaterials, have recently attracted a great deal of attention due to their amazing properties, including negative refraction, hyperbolic dispersion, and manipulation of the evanescent spectrum. In this work, a theory model is proposed for the near field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between two nanoparticles in the presence of an anisotropic metasurface. Specifically, the metasurface is modeled as an array of graphene strips (GS), which is an ideal platform to implement any metasurface topology, ranging from isotropic to hyperbolic propagation. The NFRHT between two nanoparticles are significantly amplified when they are placed in the proximity of the GS, and regulated over several orders of magnitude. In this configuration, the anisotropic surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) supported by the GS are excited and provide a new channel for the near-field energy transport. The dependence of conductance between two nanoparticles on the orientation, the structure parameters, the chemical potential of the GS, and the interparticle or the particle-surface distances are analyzed by clearly identifying the characteristics of the anisotropic SPPs such as dispersion relations, propagation length, and decay length. These results demonstrate a powerful method to regulate the energy transport in particle systems, and create a way to explore the anisotropic optical properties of the metasurface based on the measured heat transfer properties.

• Received 20 March 2019
• Revised 12 June 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.085426