Thermal metamaterial

By structuring material on the nanoscale in particular ways one can influence the flow of phonons and thermal photons in gaps and thus the materials heat conductivity properties.

Electronic properties also can play a big role in heat conduction (especially in well electrically conducting metals). They also depend on the nano-structuring of the material but in addition the elements chosen to be used in the base material can play a much bigger role. This may make electrically conductive materials harder to analyze.

• Emission of long wavelength photons can be suppressed -- converting heat to light

Related

• Thermal isolation
• Diamondoid heat pump system
• Refractory materials
• Optical metamaterial

External links

• Incandescent light made highly efficient by selectively reflecting back infrared photons (this was not produced with atomic precision)
  Original paper by Shawn-Yu Lin - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Tailoring high-temperature radiation and the resurrection of the incandescent source -- [1]
• Wikipedia: Onsager_reciprocal_relations