近日，日本东京大学的Masahiro Nomura&Xin Huang及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们实现一种流体动力声子输运驱动的石墨热特斯拉阀。相关研究成果已于2024年10月16日在国际权威学术期刊《自然》上发表。

据悉，特斯拉阀有利于微流控系统中流体流动的整流，并启发人们参考液态环境下的流体整流机制，设计出现代的固态电子和热整流器。

与微流控通道中的流体整流相比，微固体通道中的热声子整流由于声子之间缺乏动量守恒的碰撞，以及类似液体的声子流动不常发生，因而呈现出更高的复杂性。近期，对石墨材料中声子流体动力学的研究和发现，为实现热整流开辟了新的途径。

本文展示了一种利用声子流体动力学方法，在同位素富集的石墨晶体中实现热传导整流的方式。研究人员在90纳米厚的石墨中设计了一个微米尺度的特斯拉阀，并在45开尔文温度下，实验观察到相反方向上热导率存在明显的15.2%差异。这项工作标志着利用集体声子行为，在微观和纳米尺度电子设备中进行热管理的重要一步，为固体中的热整流开辟了道路。

附：英文原文

Title: A graphite thermal Tesla valve driven by hydrodynamic phonon transport

Author: Huang, Xin, Anufriev, Roman, Jalabert, Laurent, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Guo, Yangyu, Ni, Yuxiang, Volz, Sebastian, Nomura, Masahiro

Issue&Volume: 2024-10-16

Abstract: The Tesla valve benefits the rectification of fluid flow in microfluidic systems 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 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 45K. 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.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08052-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08052-1