Heat radiation at the nanoscale is a relatively young but flourishing research field, that has attracted much attention in the last decade. This is on the one hand due to the fact that this effect is nowadays experimentally accessible (Hu et al. (2008); Kittel et al (2005);Narayanaswamy et al. (2008); Ottens et al. (2011); Rousseau et al. (2009); Shen et al. (2009)), and on the other hand due t…
Radiation is energy that moves through space or matter at a very high speed. This energy can be in the form of particles, such as alpha or beta particles, which are emitted from radioactive materials, or waves such as light, heat, radiowaves, microwaves, x-rays and gamma rays. Radioactive materials, also known as radionuclides or radioisotopes, are atoms that are unstable. In nature, there is a…
Radioactivity is a spontaneous process characteristic of atoms with unstable nuclei in which the nucleus releases energy either as a particle with kinetic energy or as electromagnetic energy. Upon release of this energy the nucleus may be stable or it may still be unstable and will acquire stability through an additional transformation(s). The original species prior to radioactive disintegrati…