A graphite thermal Tesla valve driven by hydrodynamic phonon transport
The Tesla valve benefits the rectification of fluid flow in microfluidic systems<sup>1-6</sup> and inspires researchers to design modern solid-state electronic and thermal rectifiers referring to fluid-rectification mechanisms in a liquid-state context. In contrast to the rectification of fluids in microfluidic channels, the rectification of thermal phonons in micro-solid channels presents increased complexity owing to the lack of momentum-conserving collisions between phonons and the infrequent occurrence of liquid-like phonon flows. Recently, investigations and revelations of phonon hydrodynamics in graphitic materials<sup>7-10</sup> have opened up new avenues for achieving thermal rectification. Here we demonstrate a phonon hydrodynamics approach to realize the rectification of heat conduction in isotopically enriched graphite crystals. We design a micrometre-scale Tesla valve within 90-nm-thick graphite and experimentally observe a discernible 15.2% difference in thermal conductivity between opposite directions at 45 K. This work marks an important step towards using collective phonon behaviour for thermal management in microscale and nanoscale electronic devices, paving the way for thermal rectification in solids.
Authors
- Masahiro Nomura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3706-4836)
- Xin Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6950-5651)
- Yangyu Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2862-896X)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105)
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- Yuxiang Ni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8567-6998)
- Roman Anufriev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1224-0282)
- Sébastian Volz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2069-9480)
- Laurent Jalabert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3853-8944)
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Laboratory for Integrated Micro-Mechatronic Systems (JP)
- Centre d'Énergétique et de Thermique de Lyon (FR)
- Nomura Holdings (Japan) (JP)
- Southwest Jiaotong University (CN)
- Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (FR)
- Nomura Research Institute (JP)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2024-10-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08052-1
- Citations
- 36
- Primary Topic
- Thermal properties of materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.22
Funders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Advanced Low Carbon Technology Research and Development Program
- Strategic International Collaborative Research Program