Near-field radiative heat transfer (RHT) between two bodies can significantly exceed the far-field limit set by Planck's law due to the evanescent wave tunneling, which typically can only occur when the two bodies are separated at subwavelength distances. We show that the RHT between two SiC nanoparticles with separation distances much larger than the thermal wavelength can still exceed the far-field limit when the particles are located within a subwavelength distance away from a SiC substrate. In this configuration, the localized surface phonon polariton (SPhP) of the particles couples to the propagating SPhP of the substrate which then provides a new channel for the near-field energy transport and enhances the RHT by orders of magnitude at large distances. The enhancement is also demonstrated to appear in a chain of closely spaced SiC nanoparticles located in the near field of a SiC substrate. The findings provide a way for the long-distance transport of near-field energy.

The many-body radiative heat transfer theory [P. Ben-Abdallah, S.-A. Biehs, and K. Joulain, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 114301 (2011)] considered only the contribution from the electric dipole moment. For metal particles, however, the magnetic dipole moment due to eddy current plays an important role, which can further couple with the electric dipole moment to introduce crossed terms. In this paper, we develop the coupled electric and magnetic dipole (CEMD) approach for the radiative heat transfer in a collection of objects in mutual interaction. Due to the coupled electric and magnetic interactions, four terms, namely the electric-electric, the electric-magnetic, the magnetic-electric, and the magnetic-magnetic terms, contribute to the radiative heat flux and the local energy density. The CEMD is applied to study the radiative heat transfer between various dimers of nanoparticles. It is found that each of the four terms can dominate the radiative heat transfer depending on the position and composition of particles. Moreover, near-field many-body interactions are studied by CEMD considering both dielectric and metallic nanoparticles. The near-field radiative heat flux and local energy density can be greatly increased when the particles are in coupled resonances. Surface plasmon polariton and surface phonon polariton can be coupled to enhance the radiative heat flux.

Radiative heat transfer (RHT) and radiative thermal energy (RTE) for two-dimensional (2D) nanoparticle ensembles are investigated in the framework of many-body radiative heat transfer theory. We consider nanoparticles made of different materials: metals (Ag), polar dielectrics (SiC), or insulator-metallic phase-change materials $\left({\mathrm{VO}}_2\right)$. We start by investigating the RHT between two parallel 2D finite-size square-lattice nanoparticle ensembles, with particular attention to many-body interactions (MBI) effects. We fix the particle radius $\left(a\right)$ as the smallest length scale, and we describe the electromagnetic scattering from particles within the dipole approximation. Depending on the minimal distance between the in-plane particles (the lattice spacing $p$ for periodic systems), on the separation $d$ between the two lattice and on the thermal wavelength ${\lambda }_T=\hslash c/k_{B}T$, we systematically analyze the different physical regimes characterizing the RHT. Four regimes are identified, rarefied regime, dense regime, non-MBI regime, and MBI regime, respectively. When $p\ll {\lambda }_T^{}$, a multiple scattering of the electromagnetic field inside the systems gives rise to a MBI regime. MBI effects manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the separation $d$: (a) If $d>{\lambda }_T$, due to the pure intra-ensemble MBI inside each 2D ensemble, the total heat conductance is less affected, and the thermal conductance spectrum manifests a single peak which is nonetheless shifted with respect to the one typical of two isolated nanoparticles. (b) If $d<{\lambda }_T$, there is a strong simultaneous intra-ensemble and inter-ensemble MBI. In this regime there is a direct quantitative effect on the heat conductance, in addition to a qualitative effect on the thermal conductance spectrum, which now manifests a new second peak. As for the RTE, to correctly describe the radiation emitted by metallic nanoparticles, we derive an expression of the Poynting vector including also magnetic contribution, in addition to the electric one. By analyzing both periodic and nonperiodic ensembles, we show that the RTE emitted by a single 2D nanoparticle ensemble is sensitive to the particle distribution. As instance, we see that the RTE emitted by 2D concentric-ring-configuration ensemble has an inhibition feature near the center of the ensemble.