Thermal-Wave Diode
José Ordoñez-Miranda, Yangyu Guo, J. J. Alvarado‐Gil, Sébastian Volz, Masahiro Nomura
Abstract
The operation of thermal diodes is typically limited to narrow temperature ranges and low rectification of steady-state heat currents. Despite their key application in thermal computing, and the analogy to their electronic counterparts, the development of thermal diodes operating with modulated heat currents has not received much attention. Based on the spatiotemporal modulation of a material's thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity, the authors give proof of principle of a thermal diode that can rectify the modulated heat current of thermal waves. Rectification factors higher than 86% are obtained as the modulation frequencies driving the propagation of thermal waves decrease.