On-demand thermal power amplification enabled by active heat Q-switching
Open accessAbstract
Thermal energy storage buffers intermittent heat sources, but delivering short bursts on demand requires control over both retention and release. Here, we show that counter-flow heat oscillators provide this control through an actively switchable thermal quality factor, Q . Matched flows sustain internal heat recirculation and energy accumulation; flow detuning or reduced interchannel coupling releases stored energy rapidly. Experiments in a water-based device demonstrate approximately 5-fold enhancement of one channel's outlet power relative to its pre-switch steady output, in agreement with a transient thermofluidic model. The model predicts approximately 20-fold peak amplification relative to input power for liquid-metal systems, with stacked oscillators further extending the accessible energy-power range. These results establish Q -switching as a means of controlling when accumulated thermal energy is delivered, linking resonant heat transport to programmable thermal output.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Still being checked.
Cited by
Still being checked.
- Authors
- Ye, Q., Machorro-Ortiz, A., Schmid, W., Wehmeyer, G., Halas, N. J., & Alabastri, A.
- Affiliations
- Rice University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Halas, Naomi J.
- Alabastri, Alessandro
- Venue
- Cell Reports Physical Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2026-10
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 103593
- ISSN
- 2666-3864 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W7214016084
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cell Reports Physical Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation Division of Graduate Education
- The Welch Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Thermal properties of materials
- Keywords
- thermal energy storage
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
