On the Contribution of Thermally Generated Surface Plasmon-Polaritons to Heat Radiation of Metal Objects

We present theoretical and experimental evaluations of the thermally generated surface plasmon polaritons (TSPPs) contribution to heat radiation of metal objects. It is found that this contribution is significant only for the edges of such objects flat facets observed at sliding angles to the facets planes and it is p-polarized. The analytical model for calculation the spectrum and the integral intensity of the entire set of TSPPs arriving to the edge of their sources line has been developed. In contrast to thermal radiation, intensity of TSPPs is proportional to the third rather than fourth degree of temperature, while the TSPP spectrum is shifted towards low frequencies relative to the thermal radiation spectrum.