Ultrafast and Nanoscale Energy Transduction Mechanisms and Coupled Thermal Transport across Interfaces

The coupled interactions among the fundamental carriersof charge,heat, and electromagnetic fields at interfaces and boundaries giverise to energetic processes that enable a wide array of technologies.The energy transduction among these coupled carriers results in thermaldissipation at these surfaces, often quantified by the thermal boundaryresistance, thus driving the functionalities of the modern nanotechnologiesthat are continuing to provide transformational benefits in computing,communication, health care, clean energy, power recycling, sensing,and manufacturing, to name a few. It is the purpose of this Reviewto summarize recent works that have been reported on ultrafast andnanoscale energy transduction and heat transfer mechanisms acrossinterfaces when different thermal carriers couple near or across interfaces.We review coupled heat transfer mechanisms at interfaces of solids,liquids, gasses, and plasmas that drive the resulting interfacialheat transfer and temperature gradients due to energy and momentumcoupling among various combinations of electrons, vibrons, photons,polaritons (plasmon polaritons and phonon polaritons), and molecules.These interfacial thermal transport processes with coupled energycarriers involve relatively recent research, and thus, several opportunitiesexist to further develop these nascent fields, which we comment onthroughout the course of this Review.