Radiative thermal rectification using superconducting materials

Abstract

Thermal rectification can be defined as an asymmetry in the heat flux when the temperature difference between two interacting thermal reservoirs is reversed. In this Letter, we present a far-field radiative thermal rectifier based on high-temperature superconducting materials with a rectification ratio up to 80%. This value is among the highest reported in literature. Two configurations are examined: a superconductor (Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8) exchanging heat with (1) a black body and (2) another superconductor, YBa2Cu3O7 in this case. The first configuration shows a higher maximal rectification ratio. Besides, we show that the two-superconductor rectifier exhibits different rectification regimes depending on the choice of the reference temperature, i.e., the temperature of the thermostat. Presented results might be useful for energy conversion devices, efficient cryogenic radiative insulators engineering, and thermal logical circuits’ development.