Breakthrough Tracker record
Phonon focusing observed at room temperature
Tip-enhanced Raman temperature maps revealed ray-like heat propagation in boron arsenide at room temperature. The patterns, their time evolution and their orientation-dependent symmetry matched first-principles Boltzmann-transport calculations across multiple samples.
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- Stable ID
physics-phonon-focusing-room-temperature-2026- Revision
physics-phonon-focusing-room-temperature-2026.v1- Field
- Physics · Condensed matter and nanoscale heat transport
- Evidence
- Tier 1 · Peer reviewed: Yes
- Record state
- Current · Peer-reviewed publication
- Last checked
AI role
No AI role was disclosed in the inspected article.
Record details
- Problem or result
- Experimental observation of phonon focusing at room temperature
- Authors
- Man Li, Huan Wu, Zihao Qin, Chuanjin Su, Huu Duy Nguyen and Yongjie Hu
- Institutions
- University of California, Los Angeles, including Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the California NanoSystems Institute
- Result date
- Published July 23, 2026
Why it matters
Phonon focusing had previously been observed only at cryogenic temperatures. Room-temperature directional heat flow creates a new experimental regime for nanoscale thermal transport and possible future thermal or quantum devices.
Limits
The demonstration is in high-thermal-conductivity boron arsenide and the device applications are prospective. The extended data show three principal experimental samples; the article states that data and code are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request rather than through an open repository.
Sources
- Primary: Li and colleagues, Phonon focusing at room temperature, Nature Physics
- Institutional context: UCLA research announcement and experimental overview
Correction and revision history
- 2026-07-27 — Added after reviewing the peer-reviewed article, experimental figures, sample-reproducibility data, institutional context and data-availability statement.
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