Thermal shield effect with uniaxial crystals

A model describing radiative transfers inside uniaxial anisotropic media is presented. The transport equations for each electromagnetic mode supported by these media are derived in the limit of geometrical optics and an analytical solution is obtained from a ray tracing method. The temperature field inside such a medium illuminated on both sides by a blackbody radiation is calculated and compared to the temperature field of an isotropic medium submitted to the same conditions. We show that the temperature field in the anisotropic medium is drastically smaller than its counterpart, even for weak anisotropy.