Thermal dynamics and electronic temperature waves in layered correlated materials

TL;DR

This paper investigates layered correlated materials as a platform for unconventional heat transfer, demonstrating the potential for electronic-origin wave-like temperature oscillations and tunable thermal regimes for nanoscale device applications.

Contribution

It reveals that layered strongly correlated materials can exhibit a wide range of heat transfer regimes, including wave-like temperature oscillations up to room temperature, controlled by electronic interactions.

Findings

Electronic heat transfer can be ballistic, hydrodynamic, or diffusive.

Wave-like temperature oscillations are predicted to occur at room temperature.

Interaction strength controls the thermal transport regime.

Abstract

We explore layered strongly correlated materials as a platform to identify and control unconventional heat transfer phenomena. We demonstrate that these systems can be tailored to sustain a wide spectrum of heat transport regimes, ranging from ballistic, to hydrodynamic all the way to diffusive. Within the hydrodynamic regime, wave-like temperature oscillations are predicted up to room temperature. All the above phenomena have a purely electronic origin, stemming from the existence of two components in the electronic system, each one thermalized at different temperatures. The interaction strength can be exploited as a knob to control the different thermal transport regimes. The present results pave the way to transition-metal oxide heterostructures as building blocks for nanodevices exploiting the wave-like nature of heat transfer on the picosecond time scale.