Issue 7, 2021

Tunable solid-state thermal rectification by asymmetric nonlinear radiation

Abstract

Thermal rectification is a direction-dependent asymmetric heat transport phenomenon. Here we report the tunable solid-state thermal rectification by asymmetric nonlinear far-field radiation. The asymmetry in thermal conductivity and emissivity of a three-terminal device is realized by sputtering a thin metal film (radiation barrier: niobium, copper, or silver) on the top right half of a polyethylene terephthalate strip (emitter). Both the experiment and finite element analysis are in excellent agreement, revealing a thermal rectification ratio (TR) of 13.0% for the niobium-deposited specimen. The simulation demonstrates that the TR can be further increased to 74.5% by tuning asymmetry in thermal conductivity, emissivity, and surface area. The rectification can also be actively controlled, by gating the environmental temperature, resulting in a maximum TR of 93.1%. This work is applicable for a wide range of temperatures and device sizes, which may find applications in on-demand heat control and thermal logic gates.

Graphical abstract: Tunable solid-state thermal rectification by asymmetric nonlinear radiation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
12 Mär 2021
Accepted
20 Apr 2021
First published
30 Apr 2021

Mater. Horiz., 2021,8, 1998-2005

Tunable solid-state thermal rectification by asymmetric nonlinear radiation

J. Lee, A. A. Jan, S. P. Ganorkar, J. Cho, D. Lee and S. Baik, Mater. Horiz., 2021, 8, 1998 DOI: 10.1039/D1MH00425E

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