Eur. Phys. J. B (2017) 90: 221
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-80524-6

Regular Article

Periodic composites: quasi-uniform heat conduction, Janus thermal illusion, and illusion thermal diodes

¹ Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P.R. China
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing 210093, P.R. China

^a e-mail: jphuang@fudan.edu.cn

Received: 14 September 2017
Received in final form: 21 September 2017
Published online: 13 November 2017

Abstract

Manipulating thermal conductivities at will plays a crucial role in controlling heat flow. By developing an effective medium theory including periodicity, here we experimentally show that nonuniform media can exhibit quasi-uniform heat conduction. This provides capabilities in proposing Janus thermal illusion and illusion thermal rectification. For the former, we study, via experiment and theory, a big periodic composite containing a small periodic composite with circular or elliptic particles. As a result, we reveal the Janus thermal illusion that describes the whole periodic system with both invisibility illusion along one direction and visibility illusion along the perpendicular direction, which is fundamentally different from the existing thermal illusions for misleading thermal detection. Further, the Janus illusion helps to design two different periodic systems that both work as thermal diodes but with nearly the same temperature distribution, heat fluxes and rectification ratios, thus being called illusion thermal diodes. Such thermal diodes differ from those extensively studied in the literature, and are useful for the areas that require both thermal rectification and thermal camouflage. This work not only opens a door for designing novel periodic composites in thermal camouflage and heat rectification, but also holds for achieving similar composites in other disciplines like electrostatics, magnetostatics, and particle dynamics.