Contribution of terahertz waves to near-field radiative heat transfer between graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials alternately stacked by graphene and silicon (Si) are proposed and theoretically studied to investigate the contribution of terahertz (THz) waves to near-field radiative transfer. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient can be enhanced several times in a certain THz frequency range compared with that between graphene-covered Si bulks because of the presence of a continuum of hyperbolic modes. Moreover, the radiative heat transfer can also be enhanced remarkably for the proposed structure even in the whole THz range. The hyperbolic dispersion of the graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterial can be tuned by varying the chemical potential or the thickness of Si, with the tunability of optical conductivity and the chemical potential of graphene fixed. We also demonstrate that the radiative heat transfer can be actively controlled in the THz frequency range.