Lead-free room-temperature ferroelectric thermal conductivity switch using anisotropies in thermal conductivities
Materials with on-demand control of thermal conductivity are the prerequisites to build thermal conductivity switches, where the thermal conductivity can be turned on and off. However, the ideal switch, while required to develop novel approaches to solid-state refrigeration, energy harvesting, and even phononic circuits, is still missing. It should consist of an active material only, be environment friendly, and operate near room temperature with a reversible, fast, and large switching ratio. Here, we first predict by ab initio electronic structure calculations that ferroelectric domains in barium titanate exhibit anisotropic thermal conductivities. We confirm this prediction by combining frequency-domain thermoreflectance and scanning thermal microscopy measurements on a single crystal of barium titanate. We then use this gained knowledge to propose a lead-free thermal conductivity switch without inactive material, operating reversibly with an electric field. At room temperature, we find a switching ratio of $1.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3$, exceeding the performances of state-of-the-art materials suggested for thermal conductivity switches.
Authors
- Sarah Douri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8766-5834)
- Guillaume F. Nataf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9215-4717)
- Riccardo Rurali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4086-4191)
- Carlos Escorihuela–Sayalero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6132-4098)
- Micka Bah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6636-2854)
- Lucile Féger
- S. Dilhaire
- Séverine Gomès (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1173-7177)
- Isabelle Monot‐Laffez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0716-0827)
- Stéphane Grauby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1172-7788)
- Jorge Íñiguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6435-3604)
- Claudio Cazorla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6501-4513)
- Kyriaki Kontou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5786-5053)
- Jean‐Michel Rampnoux
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Université de Tours (FR)
- Université de Bordeaux (FR)
- University of Luxembourg (LU)
- Centre d'Énergétique et de Thermique de Lyon (FR)
- Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (FR)
- Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LU)
- Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ES)
- Centre Émile Durkheim (FR)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Materials
- Published
- 2024-09-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.8.094403
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Thermal properties of materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.23
Funders
- European Commission
- Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg
- Generalitat de Catalunya
- Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- European Research Council
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- FP7 Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies