Abstract: Thermal conductivity can be altered by applying an electric field to an antiferroelectric material or a pressure to a ferroelectric material, thereby inducing a phase transition. The materials have compositions close to a phase boundary separating the ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases, such as PbZr1?xTixO3 (with x?0.08), Pb(NbxZrySnzTi1-y-z)O3, (Pb,La)(ZrySnzTi1-y-z)O3, NaNbO3, Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3, or AgNbO3. By inducing a phase transition using either an electric field or pressure, the resulting change in the thermal conductivity can be used to provide a thermal switch or a continuous thermal conductivity tuning element.

Abstract: A method to control thermal energy transport uses mobile coherent interfaces in nanoscale ferroelectric films to scatter phonons. The thermal conductivity can be actively tuned, simply by applying an electrical potential across the ferroelectric material and thereby altering the density of these coherent boundaries to directly impact thermal transport at room temperature and above. The invention eliminates the necessity of using moving components or poor efficiency methods to control heat transfer, enabling a means of thermal energy control at the micro- and nano-scales.

Abstract: A method to control thermal energy transport uses mobile coherent interfaces in nanoscale ferroelectric films to scatter phonons. The thermal conductivity can be actively tuned, simply by applying an electrical potential across the ferroelectric material and thereby altering the density of these coherent boundaries to directly impact thermal transport at room temperature and above. The invention eliminates the necessity of using moving components or poor efficiency methods to control heat transfer, enabling a means of thermal energy control at the micro- and nano-scales.