A thermal diode, which, by analogy to its electrical counterpart, rectifies heat current, is the building block for thermal circuits. To realize a thermal diode, we demonstrate thermal rectification in a GaAs telescopic nanowire system using the thermal bridge method. We measured a preferred direction of heat flux, achieving rectification values ranging from 2 to 8% as a function of applied thermal bias. We demonstrate that the thermal boundary resistance between the thin part with the wurtzite crystal phase and the thick part with the zinc-blende crystal phase of the telescopic nanowire plays a crucial role in determining the amount and direction of heat flux rectification. This effect is confirmed by numerical solutions of the one-dimensional heat equation based on ab initio data. Additionally, we accounted for the effect of the thermal contact resistance. This work is the first experimental indication of rectification using a telescopic nanowire where we reveal the importance and role of the thermal boundary resistance in determining thermal rectification.

中文翻译：

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伸缩纳米线中的热整流：热边界电阻的影响


热二极管与电气二极管类似，用于整流热电流，是热电路的组成部分。为了实现热二极管，我们演示了使用热桥法在 GaAs 伸缩纳米线系统中的热整流。我们测量了热通量的优选方向，根据施加的热偏压实现了 2% 到 8% 的整流值。我们证明了伸缩纳米线的纤锌矿晶相薄部分和锌闪石晶相的厚部分之间的热边界电阻在决定热通量整流的数量和方向方面起着至关重要的作用。这种效果通过基于 ab initio 数据的一维热方程的数值解得到证实。此外，我们还考虑了热接触电阻的影响。这项工作是使用伸缩纳米线进行整流的第一个实验指示，我们揭示了热边界电阻在确定热整流中的重要性和作用。