An electrically tuned solid-state thermal memory based on metal-insulator transition of single-crystalline VO2 nanobeams

Abstract

A solid-state thermal memory that can store and retain thermal information with temperature states as input and output is demonstrated experimentally. A single-crystal VO2 nanobeam is used, undergoing a metal-insulator transition at ∼340 K, to obtain a nonlinear and hysteresis response in temperature. It is shown that the application of a voltage bias can substantially tune the characteristics of the thermal memory, to an extent that the heat conduction can be increased ∼60%, and the output HIGH/LOW temperature difference can be amplified over two orders of magnitude compared to an unbiased device. The realization of a solid-state thermal memory combined with an effective electrical control thus allows the development of practical thermal devices for nano- to macroscale thermal management. © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.