Local heating realization by reverse thermal cloak

Abstract

Transformation thermodynamics, as one of the important branches among the extensions of transformation optics, has attracted plentiful attentions and interests recently. The result of transformation thermodynamics, or called as ''thermal cloak'', can realize isothermal region and hide objects from heat. In this paper, we presented the concept of 'reverse thermal cloak'' to correspond to the thermal cloak and made a simple engineering definition to identify them. By full-wave simulations, we verified that the reverse thermal cloak can concentrate heat and realize local heating. The performance of local heating depends on the anisotropic dispersion of the cloaking layer's thermal conductivity. Three-dimensional finite element simulations demonstrated that the reverse thermal cloak can be used to heat up objects. Besides pre-engineered metamaterials, such reverse thermal cloak can even be realized with homogenous materials by alternating spoke-like structure or Hashin coated-sphere structure.