Thermal Excitation of Broadband and Long-range Surface Waves on SiO 2 Submicron Films

Sergei Gluchko (1) , Bruno Palpant (2) , Sebastian Volz (3, 1) , Rémy Braive (4, 5) , Thomas Antoni (2)

1 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion
2 LPQM - Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire
3 LIMMS - Laboratory for Integrated Micro Mechatronics Systems
4 Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
5 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

We detect thermally excited surfaces waves on a submicron SiO 2 layer, including Zenneck and guided modes in addition to Surface Phonon Polaritons. The measurements show the existence of these hybrid thermal-electromagnetic waves from near-(2.7 µm) to far-(11.2 µm) infrared. Their propagation distances reach values on the order of the millimeter, several orders of magnitude larger than on semi-infinite systems. These two features; spectral broadness and long range propagation, make these waves good candidates for near-field applications both in optics and thermics due to their dual nature.

Keywords: nearfield thermal radiation; thermal emission; Zenneck modes; surface phonon polaritons

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Sergei Gluchko, Bruno Palpant, Sebastian Volz, Rémy Braive, Thomas Antoni. Thermal Excitation of Broadband and Long-range Surface Waves on SiO 2 Submicron Films. Applied Physics Letters, 2017, ⟨10.1063/1.4989830⟩. ⟨hal-01558508⟩