Is it possible to reflect heat in the same way as light does???

Martin Maldovan Ph.D.

We all know the properties of light. But is it possible to reflect or focus heat in the same way as light does? The question has been answered by Martin Maldovan, a research scientist in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He developed a new technique which will provide a new way of manipulating heat. It means heat is going to be controlled as the light waves can be manipulated by lenses or mirrors. 

This technique includes nano structured semiconductor alloy crystals. As we all know "Heat is a resultant of vibration of matter". These vibrations as considered as a stream of phonons (a kind of virtual particle analogous to the photons). In this method spacing of tiny gaps in the nano structured materials are tuned to match the wavelength of the heat phonons. The frequency of the heat phonons were reduced initially bringing it closer to the sound range. Maldoven call it as "hypersonic heat". The new technique made 40 percent of the total heat flow to be concentrated within a hypersonic range and most of the phonons aligned in a narrow beam, instead of moving in every direction. Maldovan says, the new technique along with the material used can bring a wide variety of applications which includes thermoelectric devices, thermal diodes etc. Lets wait and see... :) :D 

You can read more about it on: How to treat heat like light, MIT news

You can also read his latest article "Sound and Heat Revolutions Phononics" on  : www.nature.com