Thermal transistor: Heat flux switching and modulating

Abstract

Thermal transistor is an efficient heat control device which can act as a heat switch as well as a heat modulator. In this paper, we study systematically one- and two-dimensional thermal transistors. In particular, we show how to improve significantly the efficiency of the one-dimensional thermal transistor. The study is also extended to the design of two-dimensional thermal transistor by coupling different anharmonic lattices such as the Frenkel-Kontorova and the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices. Analogy between anharmonic lattices and single-walled carbon nanotube is drawn and possible experimental realization with multi-walled nanotube is suggested. ©2008 The Physical Society of Japan.