Modulation of heat flow by means of electric fields enables the creation of thermal circuits

Overheating in electronic devices affects how it works and how long it lasts. One of the major challenges is efficiently managing the heat generated by these systems during operation, which involves controlling the thermal conductivity of the materials they comprise. While electric current can be easily manipulated in conventional electronic materials, heat presents a different challenge: phonons, the particles that transport heat in crystalline solids, lack both charge and magnetic moment, making them much harder to control.