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Thermal physics

Quantum interference heats up

Nature volume 492, pages 358–359 (2012)Cite this article

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A thermal effect predicted more than 40 years ago was nearly forgotten, while a related phenomenon stole the limelight. Now experimentally verified, the effect could spur the development of heat-controlling devices. See Letter p.401

Wouldn't it be strange to have a material whose thermal conductivity could be changed by a magnetic field? Imagine holding the end of a rod made of this material with the other end placed in a hot fire. As long as a friend keeps a bar magnet away from the rod, you wouldn't burn your hand, but as soon as they apply a magnetic field — ouch! As odd as this seems, the rules of quantum mechanics predict this type of situation for heat transported across a pair of Josephson junctions (devices that consist of two superconductors separated by a thin insulating gap). Writing on page 401, Giazotto and Martínez-Pérez1 report experiments confirming that this strange phenomenon can actually occur.

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Figure 1: A direct-current superconducting quantum interference device (d.c.-SQUID).

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  1. Raymond W. Simmonds is in the Quantum Metrology Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA.,

    Raymond W. Simmonds

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  1. Raymond W. Simmonds
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Correspondence to Raymond W. Simmonds.

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Simmonds, R. Quantum interference heats up. Nature 492, 358–359 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/492358a

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