Professor Masahiro Nomura and his research group have successfully demonstrated for the first time that the Tesla valve, which is widely used in fluids, can be applied to thermal rectification in solids by utilising the fluidic properties exhibited by phonons. This is the first time that the rectification function of the Tesla valve, which has been demonstrated in fluids and electrons, has been realised for thermal rectification in solids by utilising the fluidic properties of heat-carrying phonons that appear in high-purity graphite. Although demonstrated at low temperatures this time, theoretically this thermal rectification effect is also effective at room temperature, and is expected to be widely applied to thermal management of electronic devices with high heat generation, such as smartphones, computers and LEDs. The resulting paper was published in the online edition of the British scientific journal Nature on Wednesday 16 October.
[Link]