Bidirectional negative differential thermal resistance in three-segment Frenkel–Kontorova lattices

Abstract

By coupling three nonlinear 1D lattice segments, we demonstrate a thermal insulator model, where the system acts like an insulator for large temperature bias and a conductor for very small temperature bias. We numerically investigate the parameter range of the thermal insulator and find that the nonlinear response (the role of on-site potential), the weakly coupling interaction between each segment, and the small system size collectively contribute to the appearance of bidirectional negative differential thermal resistance (BNDTR). The corresponding exhibition of BNDTR can be explained in terms of effective phonon-band shifts. Our results can provide a new perspective for understanding the microscopic mechanism of negative differential thermal resistance and also would be conducive to further developments in designing and fabricating thermal devices and functional materials.

Enhanced Effect of Negative Differential Thermal Resistance in Nanoscale Confined Structure with Nanopatterned Surfaces

“…Negative differential thermal resistance (NDTR) refers to the counterintuitive phenomenon that the heat flux decreases with increasing temperature bias. In the past decade, NDTR has attracted much attention, as a thermal analogue to negative differential electrical resistance. − The phenomenon of NDTR has been reported in several systems, including one-dimensional nonlinear lattices, − low-dimensional nanomaterials, − and metal-dielectric interfaces . It is expected that NDTR effects may lead to an impressive technological innovation and even the construction of thermal devices, which can be found in many areas, including thermal management − and energy-saving applications. − …”

Negative differential thermal resistance in deformed carbon nanotubes

“…NDTR have firstly been observed on the models with structural inhomogeneity [18][19][20][21][22]. In the nonlinear response regime, NDTR can also occur in absolutely symmetric structure where there exists the nonlinearity in the on-site potential (or interaction potential) [23][24][25][26]. However, almost all phenomena of NDTR are found in the pure theoretical models such as the Frenkel-Kontorova model, φ 4 model, and the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model.…”