Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar

About a decade ago, the thermal diode model was proposed to rectify heat flux due to phonons. A great progress has been achieved in this rapid developing field, including the experimental realization of solid-state thermal rectifier, and a new emerging field -Phononics.

In the first part of my talk, I will give an overview of past years' development in this direction. Emphasis will be given on the extension of thermal diode concept to control other energy forms including but not limited to, elastic energy, acoustic waves, heat carried by electrons, photons and magnons etc.

In the second part, I will talk about the thermal metamaterials that can be used to realize many interesting functions like thermal cloaking, thermal concentrating, and even thermal inverting, etc.