Metamaterials Demonstrating Negative Thermal Capacity

TL;DR

This paper proposes a one-dimensional metamaterial with core-shell pairs that can exhibit negative thermal capacity by tuning frequency and density, with potential applications in metal systems near plasma frequency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel metamaterial design demonstrating negative thermal capacity through effective density manipulation and resonance tuning.

Findings

Negative thermal capacity occurs near local resonance frequency.

Effective thermal capacity depends on frequency and core/shell mass ratio.

Viscous dissipation influences the negative thermal capacity effect.

Abstract

One-dimensional chain of core-shell pairs connected by ideal springs enables design of the metamaterial demonstrating the negative effective density and negative specific thermal capacity. We assume that the molar thermal capacity of the reported metamaterial is governed by the Dulong-Petit law in its high temperature limit. The specific thermal capacity depends on the density of the metamaterial; thus, it is expected to be negative, when the effective density of the chain is negative. The range of the frequencies enabling the effect of the negative thermal capacity is established. Dependence of the effective thermal capacity on the exciting frequency for various core/shell mass ratios is elucidated. The effective thermal capacity becomes negative in the vicinity of the local resonance frequency {\omega}_0 in the situation when the frequency {\omega} approaches {\omega}_0 from above. The effect of the negative effective thermal capacity is expected in metals in the vicinity of the plasma frequency. The effect of the viscous dissipation on the effective thermal capacity is addressed.