Blackhole-Inspired Thermal Trapping with Graded Heat-Conduction Metadevices

TL;DR

This paper introduces graded heat-conduction metadevices inspired by black holes to achieve thermal trapping through imitated advection, enabling energy-efficient heat regulation and offering new insights into thermotics and cosmology.

Contribution

The study presents a novel approach to thermal trapping using graded heat-conduction metadevices that mimic black hole advection, advancing heat control technology.

Findings

Successful experimental demonstration of thermal trapping.

Enhanced energy efficiency in thermal regulation.

Potential applications in cosmology-inspired heat control.

Abstract

Black holes are one of the most intriguing predictions of general relativity. So far, metadevices have enabled analogous black holes to trap light or sound in laboratory spacetime. However, trapping heat in a conductive ambient is still challenging because diffusive behaviors are directionless. Inspired by black holes, we construct graded heat-conduction metadevices to achieve thermal trapping, resorting to the imitated advection produced by graded thermal conductivities rather than the trivial solution of using insulation materials to confine thermal diffusion. We experimentally demonstrate thermal trapping for guiding hot spots to diffuse towards the center. Graded heat-conduction metadevices have advantages in energy-efficient thermal regulation because the imitated advection has a similar temperature field effect to the realistic advection that is usually driven by external energy sources. These results also provide insights into correlating transformation thermotics with other disciplines such as cosmology for emerging heat control schemes.