Nano-Thermodynamics of a Black-Body photon gas Coskun Firat

In nano-sized domains, thermodynamic properties of substances differ from those in macro-sized ones. One common reason of this difference is the quantum size effects, which become important when comparing the thermal de Broglie wavelength of particles to the characteristic length of the system. The concept of black-body is an important part of radiation transfer theory. It serves as a standard with which real absorbers and real bodies emitting radiation can be compared. In this study, thermodynamic behavior of a photon gas confined in a nano scale ideal black-body domain is examined in terms of quantum size effects. It is concluded that the global thermodynamic properties of a black-body photon gas are different than those in nano scale due to quantum size effects. Thermodynamics of substances at nano scale is relatively a new research area and the new findings might lead to significant new applications such as harvesting energy, otherwise might be wasted.