The workshop seeks to bring together researchers studying energy transport (thermal conduction and radiation) and energy conversion (thermophotovoltaics and thermoelectrics) in nanoscale gaps, single molecule junctions and surfaces modified with monolayers and two-dimensional materials such as graphene. These topics are of great current interest as the computation and experimental techniques to probe these phenomena are just becoming available.

To elaborate, nanoscale radiative nanoscale thermal transport is widely expected to offer tremendous potential for new fundamental insights and applications. While radiative thermal transport between macroscopic objects separated by large distances is well described by Planck theory of heat radiation, radiative heat transfer in the near-field the regime in which the spacing between two surfaces is smaller than the peak wavelength predicted by Wien’s displacement law is poorly understood and is a topic of great current interest as it offers potential for nanoscale lithography, information storage and efficient energy conversion. Further, thermal conduction and thermoelectric phenomena in molecular junctions is also of great current interest due to the possibility of tuning the electronic structure of molecular junctions to achieve energy conversion at the Carnot and Curzon-Ahlborn limits and is currently being investigated actively by several computational and experimental approaches.

Relation to Molecular Science: Molecular electronics, which aims at using molecules as active elements in charge and energy transport devices, is a central pillar of nanoscience. While in recent years there has been a tremendous progress in our understanding of charge transport in molecular junctions, the corresponding heat transport has remained unexplored due to experimental challenges that are on the verge to be resolved. Molecular contacts offer the possibility to explore heat transport in an entirely new regime where different mechanisms, such as electron or phonon conduction and photon tunneling, can compete. Therefore, it is highly desirable to put together ideas and techniques of different fields including radiative heat transfer, molecular electronics at the level of single molecules or assemblies of them, and two- dimensional materials. Only through synergetic interaction can we unveil the new opportunities that nanoscience opens in the context of energy conversion and refrigeration applications.