Super-Planckian radiative heat transfer between coplanar two-dimensional metals

We use the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism to investigate the radiative heat transfer (RHT) between coplanar two-dimensional (2D) metals via a tight-binding square lattice model and the Drude model. Our results reveal that the RHT between coplanar 2D metals is significantly larger than black-body radiation in both the near and far fields, leading to a global super-Planckian RHT. As the separation distance increases, the heat flux density exhibits a rapid decrease in the near field, followed by a slower decrease and eventual 1/d dependence in the far field, while maintaining a much higher magnitude than black-body radiation. Evanescent waves dominate the heat transfer in the near field, while propagating waves dominate the far field. Surprisingly, the propagating heat flux remains almost constant over a wide range of distances, resulting in a super-Planckian behavior in the far field. The dispersion relation of the spectrum function reveals distinct contributions from propagating and evanescent waves, with possible origins from surface plasmon resonance. These findings provide insights into the unique characteristics of RHT between coplanar 2D metals and highlight the potential for achieving enhanced heat transfer beyond the black-body limit, with implications for thermal management and energy conversion applications.