Scientists have discovered that applying an electric field to certain ceramics can dramatically redirect how heat moves through them.
New research from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, carried out with collaborators at The Ohio State University and Amphenol Corporation, is challenging long-held ideas about how heat can be directed through solid materials.
The findings, reported in PRX Energy, show that an electric field can significantly change how phonons (tiny vibrations that carry heat) move inside a ceramic. When atoms vibrate in the same direction as the applied electric field (poling direction), the phonons remain active longer than vibrations that move across the field.
Because of this difference, heat travels through the material nearly three times more efficiently along the direction of the electric field than it does in other directions. The researchers say this strategy could open the door to new solid-state technologies that guide heat in practical devices.
“Being able to control both how fast and in what manner heat flows could lead to devices that manage thermal energy far more efficiently,” said Puspa Upreti, an ORNL postdoctoral research associate.
Why Controlling Heat Matters
Managing the movement of heat is essential for many advanced technologies. Examples include electronic cooling systems that operate without moving parts, devices that convert heat into electricity, chip-based circuits used in modern electronics, and cogeneration systems that capture industrial heat and reuse it.
Maintaining the correct flow of heat allows these systems to operate at their highest efficiency and performance.
The relationship between heat flow and efficiency is illustrated by the Carnot cycle, a theoretical model of a heat engine that defines the maximum efficiency possible when heat moves between hot and cold reservoirs in a controlled way. In this research, the electric field reduces obstacles that normally disrupt phonon motion.
With fewer interruptions, the vibrations can travel farther through the material, similar to how traffic moves more freely when congestion is reduced. This improved movement of phonons enhances heat conduction in the direction of the electric field and increases efficiency.
Neutron Experiments Reveal Atomic Motion
The experiments were carried out at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility located at ORNL.
Scientists used advanced inelastic neutron scattering techniques to observe both the arrangement of atoms in the material (structure) and their motion (dynamics). Neutrons allow researchers to determine where atoms are positioned and how they move within a crystal. This method builds on the Nobel Prize-winning work of Clifford Shull and Bertram Brockhouse.
The data collected at the facility provided detailed insight into how the electric field affects phonons. The results show that the field not only increases the speed of these vibrations but also lengthens their lifetimes. Both effects are important for improving the transport of heat.
The team focused on a specialized ceramic known as relaxor-based ferroelectrics. When exposed to an electric field, small electric charges inside these materials become aligned. This alignment reduces scattering that normally disrupts heat carrying vibrations, allowing energy to move through the crystal more efficiently.
The crystals examined in the study were carefully grown and later exposed to an electric field, a process called “poling,” by Raffi Sahul at Amphenol Corporation. The resulting materials made it possible to precisely control the movement of energy through the solid.
ORNL senior researcher Michael Manley designed and led the inelastic neutron scattering experiments with ORNL senior R&D staff member Raphaël Hermann.
“Earlier work on bulk ferroelectric materials achieved modest improvements in thermal conductivity of 5 percent to 10 percent, while the new measurements reveal an enhancement close to 300 percent — mainly because the phonons are able to travel much longer before they stop,” Manley said.
Connecting Heat Flow to Atomic Vibrations
By combining thermal conductivity measurements with neutron scattering results, the researchers were able to directly link changes in heat transport to the behavior of atomic vibrations inside the crystal.
The late Professor Joseph Heremans of Ohio State developed the thermal conductivity experiments and mentored doctoral candidate Delaram Rashadfar during the analysis of the results.
“While earlier work led us to expect only a modest effect, observing a threefold difference turned out to be a significant result,” said Rashadfar. “Professor Heremans always stressed the importance of trusting the data first and letting the theory follow.”
Reference: “Electric Field Control of Phonon Lifetimes and Thermal Conductivity in Relaxor-Based Ferroelectric” by Puspa Upreti, Delaram Rashadfar, Raffi Sahul, Douglas L. Abernathy, Joseph P. Heremans, Raphaël P. Hermann and Michael E. Manley, 5 January 2026, PRX Energy.
DOI: 10.1103/5d1z-wg4p
This work was funded by the DOE Basic Energy Sciences program, and other contributing partners.
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3 Comments
Managing the movement of heat is essential for many advanced technologies.
VERY GOOD!
Please ask researchers to think deeply:
1. What is heat?
2. Does the movement of heat require a substrate?
When we pursue the ultimate truth of all things, the space in which our bodies and all things exist may itself be the final and deepest puzzle we need to explore. This is not only the pursuit of physics, but also the most magnificent exploration of the origin of the universe by human reason.
Based on the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT), space is an uniformly incompressible physical entity. Space-time vortices are the products of topological phase transitions of the tipping points in space, are the point defects in spacetime. Point defects do not only impact the thermodynamic properties, but are also central to kinetic processes. They create all things and shape the world through spin and self-organization.
In today’s physics, some so-called peer-reviewed journals—including Physical Review Letters, Nature, Science, and others—stubbornly insist on and promote the following:
1. Even though θ and τ particles exhibit differences in experiments, physics can claim they are the same particle. This is science.
2. Even though topological vortices and antivortices have identical structures and opposite rotational directions, physics can define their structures and directions as entirely different. This is science.
3. Even though two sets of cobalt-60 rotate in opposite directions and experiments reveal asymmetry, physics can still define them as mirror images of each other. This is science.
4. Even though vortex structures are ubiquitous—from cosmic accretion disks to particle spins—physics must insist that vortex structures do not exist and require verification. Only the particles that like God, Demonic, or Angelic are the most fundamental structures of the universe. This is science.
5. Even though everything occupies space and maintains its existence in time, physics must still debate and insist on whether space exists and whether time is a figment of the human mind. This is science.
6. Even though space, with its non-stick, incompressible, and isotropic characteristics, provides a solid foundation for the development of physics, physics must still insist that the ideal fluid properties of space do not exist. This is science.
and go on.
Is this the counterintuitive science they widely promote? Compromising with pseudo academic publications and peer review by pseudo scholars is an insult to science and public intelligence. Some so-called scholars no longer understand what shame is. The study of Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reminds us that the most profound problems in physics often lie at the intersection of different theories. By exploring these border regions, we can not only resolve contradictions in existing theories but also discover new physical phenomena and application possibilities.
Under the topological vortex architecture, it is highly challenging for even two hydrogen atoms or two quarks to be perfectly symmetrical, let alone counter-rotating two sets of cobalt-60. Contemporary physics and so-called peer-reviewed publications (including Physical Review Letters, Science, Nature, etc.) stubbornly believe that two sets of counter rotating cobalt-60 are two mirror images of each other, constructing a more shocking pseudoscientific theoretical framework in the history of science than the “geocentric model”. This pseudo scientific framework and system have seriously hindered scientific progress and social development.
For nearly a century, physics has been manipulated by this pseudo scientific theoretical system and the interest groups behind it, wasting a lot of manpower, funds, and time. A large amount of pseudo scientific research has been conducted, and countless pseudo scientific papers have been published, causing serious negative impacts on scientific and social progress, as well as humanistic development.
Complexity does not necessarily mean that there is no logical and architectural framework to follow. Mathematics is the language and tool that reveals the motion of spacetime, rather than the motion itself. Although the physical form of spacetime vortices is extremely simple, their interaction patterns are highly complex, and we must develop more and richer mathematical languages to describe and understand them.
The development of the Topological Vortex Theory (TVT) reflects a progression from concrete physical phenomena to abstract mathematical modeling and, ultimately, to interdisciplinary unification. Its core innovation lies in forging the continuous spacetime geometry of general relativity with the discrete interactions of quantum field theory within the same topological dynamical system. The core idea of TVT — space is physical, and matter is its topological excitation—already provides a solid and elegant scientific path for understanding the origin of all things.
——Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/microscope-spacecrafts-most-precise-test-of-key-component-of-the-theory-of-general-relativity/#comment-909171 and https://t.pineal.cn/blogs/6255/A-Mathematical-and-Physical-Analysis-On-the-Origin-of-Objects.
Are these science?
Example 1
Two sets of cobalt-60 are manually rotated in opposite directions, and even without detection, people around the world know that they will not be symmetrical because these two objects are not mirror images of each other at all. However, a group of so-called physicists and so-called academic publications do not believe it. They conducted experiments and the results were indeed asymmetric, but they still firmly believed that these two objects were mirror images of each other, and the asymmetry was due to a violation of the previous natural laws (CP violation). In the history of science, there can never be a dirtier and uglier operation and explanation than this.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947619.
Example 2
Please see how the so-called “mystery of θ – τ” is explained: θ and τ are completely identical in all measurable physical properties such as mass, lifetime, charge, spin, etc. However, experimental observations have shown that the θ meson decays into two π mesons, while the τ meson decays into three π mesons, making it difficult for physicists to explain why they are so similar. Physicist Martin Block proposed a highly challenging idea: θ and τ are the same particle, but in weak interactions, parity is not conserved. An easy to understand explanation is the following analogy:: There are two boxes of apples with identical weight, color, and taste. However, when one box is opened, there are two apples, while when the other box is opened, there are three apples. This confuses the old farmer who buys apples. He circled around the orchard and came up with a highly challenging idea: these two boxes of apples are not from the same tree, so they are the same.
—— Excerpted from https://scitechdaily.com/what-happens-when-light-gains-extra-dimensions/#comment-947686.
Everyone who has a reverence for natural laws and regulations deserves respect.
In the physical world constructed by the American Physical Society (APS) and its publications using parity violation, particles from God, Demons, and Angels wander around, while dead and alive cats jump up and down, unconstrained by dynamics and thermodynamics, and unaware of what is dirty, ugly, and shameful in public. APS and its publications reject the possibility that spaces with zero viscosity, zero compression, and zero anisotropy in mathematics may form spatiotemporal vortices through topological transformations. They don’t know that space and non existence are not the same concept.
If a self proclaimed scientific society (such as American Physical Society) deviates from science without shame, it is highly likely to be heading towards the end.
Good control of heat movement literally solves our need for energy. The need for heat is exceeded only by the need for cooling.
If our homes took heat from the fridge and AC and stored it for hot water and cooking we’d eliminate 80% of our energy use.