High-rectification near-field thermal diode using phase change periodic nanostructure

We theoretically demonstrate workings of a near-field thermal rectification device that uses a phase change material to achieve asymmetry in radiative heat transfer. We exploit the temperature dependent dielectric properties of VO2 due to metal-insulator transition near 341 K. Analogous to an electrical diode, heat transfer coefficient is high in one direction while it is considerably small when the polarity of temperature gradient is reversed. We show that thermal rectification can be greatly enhanced by using 1-D rectangular and triangular VO2 surface gratings. With the introduction of periodic grating, rectification ratio is dramatically enhanced in the near-field due to reduced tunneling of surface waves across the interfaces for negative polarity. Our calculations predict that for minimal temperature difference of 20 K, the rectification ratio as high as 16 can be obtained, and it is maximum in existing literature for comparable operating temperatures and separation.

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