abstract: Near-field thermal radiation occurs when the distance between two surfaces at different temperatures is less than the characteristic wavelength of thermal radiation. While theoretical studies predict that the near-field radiative heat transfer could exceed Planck’s blackbody limit in the far-field by orders of magnitudes depending on the materials and gap distance, experimental measurement of super-Planckian near-field radiative heat flux is extremely challenging in particular at sub-100-nm vacuum gaps and few has been demonstrated. The objective of this thesis is to develop a novel thermal metrology based on AFM bi-material cantilever and experimentally measure near-field thermal radiation. The experiment setup is completed and validated by measuring the near-field radiative heat transfer between a silica microsphere and a silica substrate and comparing with theoretical calculations. The bi-material AFM cantilever made of SiNi and Au bends with temperature changes, whose deflection is monitored by the position-sensitive diode. After careful calibration, the bi-material cantilever works as a thermal sensor, from which the near-field radiative conductance and tip temperature can be deduced when the silica substrate approaches the silica sphere attached to the cantilever by a piezo stage with a resolution of 1 nm from a few micrometers away till physical contact. The developed novel near-field thermal metrology will be used to measure the near-field radiative heat transfer between the silica microsphere and planar SiC surface as well as nanostructured SiC metasurface. This research aims to enhance the fundamental understandings of radiative heat transfer in the near-field which could lead to advances in microelectronics, optical data storage and thermal systems for energy conversion and thermal management. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2019

Radiative heat transfer in nanostructures with sub-wavelength dimensions can exceed that predicted by Planck&#039 / s blackbody distribution. This increased effect is due to the tunneling of infrared radiation between nanogaps, and can allow the eventual development of nano-thermo-photo-voltaic (Nano-TPV) cells for energy generation from low temperature heat sources. Although near field radiation effects have been discussed for many years, experimental verification of these effects is very limited so far. In this study, silica coated silicon wafer sample chips have been manufactured by using MEMS fabrication methods for testing the near field radiation effects. A variety of samples with 1&times / 1, 2&times / 2 and 5&times / 5 mm2 area, and with 25 nm, 50 nm, 100 nm and 200 nm (nano-gap) separations have been prepared. 3D structures with vacuum gaps have been obtained by bonding of the silica coated wafers. The samples have been tested in an experimental setup by a collaborative group at &Ouml / zyegin University, Istanbul. An increase in the net radiation heat transfer with decreasing nano-gap size has been reported by the &Ouml / zyegin group who used these samples in a parallel study. The thesis outlines the micro-fabrication techniques used for the sample preparation. Also, the manufacturing problems we have faced during this research program are discussed.

La miniaturisation des transistors atteignant aujourd’hui des tailles de l’ordrede la dizaine de nanomètres a introduit des problèmes de contrôle de la chaleuraux courtes échelles. Ce défi industriel, parmi d’autres, a permis l’émergencede l’étude des transferts thermiques à l’échelle nanométrique. Un des axes derecherche de cette thématique concerne le rayonnement de champ proche. Ils’agit de comprendre le comportement des ondes thermiques sur des distancesinférieures à leur longueur d’onde. A cette échelle les ondes contenant la densitéénergétique la plus importante sont des ondes évanescentes, confinées ensurface. Le phonon-polariton de surface (PPS) en est un type : c’est une ondeévanescente se propageant à la surface de matériaux polaires et diélectriques.L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’examiner la propagation de PPS le longde la surface de tubes de verre micrométriques, et de montrer en quoi cettegéométrie favorise le transfert de chaleur par le biais de ces ondes.Une étude théorique a été menée pour justifier l’utilisation de ce guide d’ondesde chaleur dont la conductivité thermique peut être jusqu’à doublée grâce auxPPS. La présence des PPS est ensuite détectée expérimentalement. En effetla diffraction de ces ondes à la pointe du tube est décelée par un ensemblemicroscope-spectromètre à transformée de Fourier IR. Le spectre du rayonnementobtenu prouve la diffraction de PPS grâce à leurs signatures spectralesspécifiques. / Miniaturization of transistors, whose sizes reach a few tens of nanometers nowadays,implies new problems of heat control at very short scales. This big challenge among others enabled the emergence of nanoscale heat transfer as a new research domain. Near-field heat transfer is one of the axis of this thematic.It concerns the behavior of thermal waves at a scale shorter than their wave lengths.Under these conditions the waves with the highest energy density are evanescent, that is confined at the surface. Surface phonon-polariton (SPhP) is a particular case of an evanescent wave propagating at the surface of a polar dielectric material. This PhD work consists in examining SPhP propagation along the surface of micrometric glass tubes and in proving the ability of these waves to enhance heat transfer in these systems.A theoretical analysis has been carried out to justify the use of such heat waveguides whose thermal conductivity can be doubled due to SPhP. The experimental detection of those waves based on their diffraction at the tip of the glass tubes is then presented. This emission is measured thanks to the assembly of a microscope and a Fourier-transform IR spectrometer. The presence of SPhPs is proved through measured spectra exhibiting their characteristic spectral signature.