  Near-field heat transfer between two closely spaced radiating media can
exceed in orders radiation through the interface of a single black body. This
effect is caused by exponentially decaying (evanescent) waves which form the
photon tunnel between two transparent boundaries. However, in the mid-infrared
range it holds when the gap between two media is as small as few tens of
nanometers. We propose a new paradigm of the radiation heat transfer which
makes possible the strong photon tunneling for micron thick gaps. For it the
air gap between two media should be modified, so that evanescent waves are
transformed inside it into propagating ones. This modification is achievable
using a metamaterial so that the direct thermal conductance through the
metamaterial is practically absent and the photovoltaic conversion of the
transferred heat is not altered by the metamaterial.
