The effective manipulation of heat transfer with novel materials/devices is crucial for the increasing demands on energy utilization, communication, and thermal management. Inspired by the recent developments in photonics and other wave materials, new perspectives were formed on heat transfer in artificial structures like thermal metamaterials and meta-devices. Here, we report some of our findings in this area by exploring unusual material properties and developing new theoretical frameworks. The talk covers the nonlinear transformation theory for heat transfer in temperature dependent materials with its applications in designing novel devices such as a thermal diode and an energy-free thermostat. Also, a non-invasive transformation is introduced as a new approach to conceal objects against infrared detections. The thermal analogue of zero-index material is proposed with practical realizations that breaks the conventional limit on thermal conductivity, enabling high-efficiency heat control. Finally, we present a heat-transfer system that rigorously preserves the anti-parity-time symmetry predicted in quantum physics, and demonstrate interesting phenomena related to its symmetry breaking. Our results indicate new directions of researches on heat transfer with deeper understandings and promising applications.

Ying Li obtained his Ph.D. degree from Fudan University on 2016. Currently he works as a research fellow in National University of Singapore. His research interests are mainly about heat transfer in artificial structures (thermal metamaterials and meta-devices), non-Hermitian physics, and thermal radiation. He has published works on high-impact journals including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Communications (2 papers), Physical Review Letters (2 papers), Light: Science & Applications, Advanced Materials (4 papers), and Nano Letters. Many of the works are selected as the cover article or featured on famous news media like ScienceDaily, Physics, phys.org, and Advanced Science News. He also frequently reviews manuscripts submitted to Physical Review Letters, Light: Science & Applications, Advanced Materials, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, etc.