A Thermal Diode Based on Nanoscale Thermal Radiation

Anthony Fiorino, Dakotah Thompson, Linxiao Zhu, Rohith Mittapally, Svend Age Biehs, Odile Bezencenet, Nadia El-Bondry, Shailendra Bansropun, Philippe Ben-Abdallah, Edgar Meyhofer, Pramod Reddy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

174 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work we demonstrate thermal rectification at the nanoscale between doped Si and VO2 surfaces. Specifically, we show that the metal-insulator transition of VO2 makes it possible to achieve large differences in the heat flow between Si and VO2 when the direction of the temperature gradient is reversed. We further show that this rectification increases at nanoscale separations, with a maximum rectification coefficient exceeding 50% at ∼140 nm gaps and a temperature difference of 70 K. Our modeling indicates that this high rectification coefficient arises due to broadband enhancement of heat transfer between metallic VO2 and doped Si surfaces, as compared to narrower-band exchange that occurs when VO2 is in its insulating state. This work demonstrates the feasibility of accomplishing near-field-based rectification of heat, which is a key component for creating nanoscale radiation-based information processing devices and thermal management approaches.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5174-5179
Number of pages6
JournalACS nano
Volume12
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 26 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • General Engineering
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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