  Modeling and investigating the thermalization of microscopic objects with
arbitrary shape from first principles is of fundamental interest and may lead
to technical applications. Here, we study, over a large temperature range, the
thermalization dynamics due to far-field heat radiation of an individual,
deterministically produced silica fiber with a predetermined shape and a
diameter smaller than the thermal wavelength. The temperature change of the
subwavelength-diameter fiber is determined through a measurement of its optical
path length in conjunction with an ab initio thermodynamic model of the fiber
structure. Our results show excellent agreement with a theoretical model that
considers heat radiation as a volumetric effect and takes the emitter shape and
size relative to the emission wavelength into account.
