Tunable thermal links

We demonstrate that the thermal conductance K of individual multiwall carbon nanotubes can be controllably and reversibly adjusted by sliding the outer shells of the tube with respect to the inner core in a telescopinglike manner. K shows an exponential dependence on the telescoping distance. Tunable nanoscale thermal links have immediate implications for nano- to macroscale thermal management, biosystems, and phononic information processing. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.