Development of thermal switching device working under a bias voltage

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14375
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Physical properties of metals/Metal-base materials
• Research Institution: Toyota Technological Institute
• Principal Investigator: Takeuchi Tsunehiro 豊田工業大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (00293655)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 熱流スイッチ / 電子熱伝導度 / 格子熱伝導度 / 非調和振動 / 半導体 / 周期加熱法 / 自己発熱合成法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We tried to fabricate a thermal switching device working under a bias voltage. For this purpose, we had to find materials characterized by extremely small lattice thermal conductivity and a electronic structure of typical semiconductor. We realized that Ag2S, Ag2Se, Ag2Te satisfy this condition, and produced a thermal switching device consisting of two Ag2S sheet of 20 micro-meter in thickness separated by a 60 micro-meter polyimide film. By applying a few volt, we succeeded in observing 4 - 7 % change in thermal conductivity. Although the change in thermal conductivity was too tiny to be utilized, it is naturally suggested that devices with thinner Ag2S and polyimide layers of a few nm would produces 100 times larger switching effect on heat conduction. We are now in progress in producing such a high-performance thermal switching device.

Free Research Field

金属物性