“Phonon tunneling” explains heat flow across nanometer-wide
gaps, study finds.
(April 7, 2015) Conduction
and thermal radiation are two ways in which heat is transferred from one object
to another: Conduction is the process by which heat flows between objects in
physical contact, such as a pot of tea on a hot stove, while thermal radiation
describes heat flow across large distances, such as heat emitted by the sun.
These two fundamental heat-transfer processes explain how
energy moves across microscopic and macroscopic distances. But it’s been
difficult for researchers to ascertain how heat flows across intermediate gaps.