Near-Field Effects in Spatial Coherence of Thermal Sources
- 22 February 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 82 (8), 1660-1663
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.82.1660
Abstract
We present an exact calculation of the cross-spectral density tensor of the near field thermally emitted into free space by an opaque planar surface. The approach, based on fluctuational electrodynamics and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, yields novel near-field correlation properties. We show that the spatial coherence length of the field close to the surface at a given wavelength may be much smaller than the well-known of blackbody radiation. We also show that a long-range correlation may exist, when resonant surface waves, such as surface-plasmon or surface-phonon polaritons, are excited. These results should have important consequences in the study of coherence in thermal emission and in the modeling of nanometer scale radiative transfer.
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Radiometric coherence tensors for thermal radiation emission from an opaque specular surfaceJournal of the Optical Society of America A, 1997
- Optical Coherence and Quantum OpticsPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1995
- Challenges in Microscale Conductive and Radiative Heat TransferJournal of Heat Transfer, 1994
- New Green-function formalism for surface opticsJournal of the Optical Society of America B, 1987
- Scanning thermal profilerApplied Physics Letters, 1986
- Organ pipe radiant modes of periodic micromachined silicon surfacesNature, 1986
- Statistical OpticsPhysics Today, 1986
- Invariance of the Spectrum of Light on PropagationPhysical Review Letters, 1986
- Coherence and radiometry*Journal of the Optical Society of America, 1978
- Coherence properties of lambertian and non-lambertian sources*Journal of the Optical Society of America, 1975