Negative differential thermal resistance effect in a nanoscale sandwiched system with nanostructured surfaces

In this work, the negative differential thermal resistance effect has been proposed in a solid-liquid-solid sand-wiched system with a nanostructured cold surface. Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations demon-strate that the heat flux in the present sandwiched system increases with the temperature bias for low temperature bias, while for high temperature bias, the heat flux decreases counter-intuitively with increasing temperature bias. Based on the analysis of the interfacial thermal resistance and the density depletion length at the solid-liquid interface, the negative differential thermal resistance effect at high temperature bias is attributed to the suppressed solid-liquid interfacial thermal conductance with decreasing temperature. In addition, it is found that the negative differential thermal resistance effect can be tuned by the size of the nanostructure.

Automated summary

In this study, the phenomenon of negative differential thermal resistance effect is observed in a solid-liquid-solid sandwiched system with a nanostructured cold surface. Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the heat flux initially increases with temperature bias for low temperature bias, but decreases counter-intuitively for high temperature bias. The negative differential thermal resistance effect at high temperature bias is attributed to the suppressed solid-liquid interfacial thermal conductance with decreasing temperature, as analyzed based on interfacial thermal resistance and density depletion length at the solid-liquid interface.