title: Thermalization via heat radiation of an individual object thinner than the thermal wavelength.
abstract: Modeling and investigating the thermalization of microscopic objects with arbitrary shape from first principles is of fundamental interest and may lead to technical applications. Here, we study, over a large temperature range, the thermalization dynamics due to far-field heat radiation of an individual, deterministically produced silica fiber with a predetermined shape and a diameter smaller than the thermal wavelength. The temperature change of the subwavelength-diameter fiber is determined through a measurement of its optical path length in conjunction with an ab initio thermodynamic model of the fiber structure. Our results show excellent agreement with a theoretical model that considers heat radiation as a volumetric effect and takes the emitter shape and size relative to the emission wavelength into account.
authors.affiliation: Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, TU Wien-Atominstitut, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wuttke
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rauschenbeutel