摘要
Thermal rectification,or the asymmetric transport of heat along a structure,has recently been investigated as a poten-tial solution to the thermal management issues that accompany the miniaturization of electronic devices.Applications of this concept in thermal logic circuits analogous to existing electronics-based processor logic have also been proposed.This review highlights some of the techniques that have been recently investigated for their potential to induce asymmetric thermal con-ductivity in solid-state structures that are composed of materials of interest to the electronics industry.These rectification ap-proaches are compared in terms of their quantitative performance,as well as the range of practical applications that they would be best suited to.Techniques applicable to a range of length scales,from the continuum regime to quantum dots,are dis-cussed,and where available,experimental findings that build upon numerical simulations or analytical predictions are also high-lighted.
基金
fully funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK and Imperial College London
