Manipulating Heat Like Light 82
An anonymous reader writes "A new technique allows allows 'thermocrystals' to be created that can manipulate heat (a vibration of the atomic lattice of a material). Predicted manipulations include the ability to selectively transmit, reflect or concentrate heat much like light waves can be manipulated by lenses and mirrors. 'Heat differs from sound, he explains, in the frequency of its vibrations: Sound waves consist of lower frequencies (up to the kilohertz range, or thousands of vibrations per second), while heat arises from higher frequencies (in the terahertz range, or trillions of vibrations per second).' Applications range from better thermoelectric devices to switchable heat insulating/transmitting materials (abstract). Perhaps this will result in better cooling/heating mechanisms or more efficient engines."
A specific specially created heat (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Low-heat electricity generation (Score:4, Informative)
No, because it would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Re:Could they redirect only a certain hotness? (Score:5, Informative)
No.
They first have to select specific wavelengths and then--it sounds like--frequency-shift them.
To call this "heat" is a deliberately misleading statement designed to elicit precisely the question you are asking, as that will attract much more of our most limited resource--attention--to this otherwise interesting but essentially esoteric work.
"Heat" in ordinary parlance is constituted by vibrational modes that obey the principle of equipartition, which this "heat" manifestly does not.
heat is light. period. (Score:0, Informative)
Heat is light.
Re:Wha? (Score:3, Informative)
A swing and a miss... While things with temperature will emit blackbody radiation, which corresponds with IR for temperatures humans typically deal with in day to day stuff, and it is possible for a photon gas to have a temperature and distribution, neither of those make heat synonymous with IR or light in general. E&M radiation covers transfer by irradiation, but convection and conduction are handled by vibrations and motion of particles.