(Press-News.org) Imagine you are playing the guitar—each pluck of a string creates a sound wave that vibrates and interacts with other waves.
Now shrink that idea down to a small single molecule, and instead of sound waves, picture vibrations that carry heat.
A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder has recently discovered that these tiny thermal vibrations, otherwise known as phonons, can interfere with each other just like musical notes—either amplifying or canceling each other, depending on how a molecule is "strung" together.
Phonon interference is something that’s never been measured or observed at room temperature on a molecular scale. But this group has developed a new technique that has the power to display these tiny, vibrational secrets.
The breakthrough study was led by Assistant Professor Longji Cui and his team in the Cui Research Group. Their work, funded by the National Science Foundation in collaboration with researchers from Spain (Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Italy (Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici) and the CU Boulder Department of Chemistry, was recently published in the journal Nature Materials.
The group says their findings will help researchers around the world gain a better understanding of the physical behaviors of phonons, the dominant energy carriers in all insulating materials. They believe one day, this discovery can revolutionize how heat dissipation is managed in future electronics and materials.
“Interference is a fundamental phenomenon,” said Cui, who is also affiliated with the Materials Science and Engineering Program and the Center for Experiments on Quantum Materials. “If you have the capability to understand interference of heat flow at the smallest level, you can create devices that have never been possible before.”
The world’s strongest set of ears
Cui says molecular phononics, or the study of phonons in a molecule, has been around for quite some time as a primarily theoretical discussion. But you need some pretty strong ears to “listen” to these molecular melodies and vibrations first-hand, and that technology just simply hasn’t existed.
That is, until Cui and his team stepped in.
The group designed a thermal sensor smaller than a grain of sand or even a sawdust particle. This little probe is special: it features a record-breaking resolution that allows them to grab a molecule and measure phonon vibration at the smallest level possible.
Using these specially designed miniature thermal sensors, the team studied heat flow through single molecular junctions and found that certain molecular pathways can cause destructive interference—the clashing of phonon vibrations to reduce heat flow.
Sai Yelishala, a PhD student in Cui’s lab and lead author of the study, said this research using their novel scanning thermal probe represents the first observation of destructive phonon interference at room temperature.
In other words, the team has unlocked the ability to manage heat flow at the scale where all materials are born: a molecule.
“Let’s say you have two waves of water in the ocean that are moving towards each other. The waves will eventually crash into each other and create a disturbance in between,” Yelishala said. “That is called destructive interference and that is what we observed in this experiment. Understanding this phenomenon can help us suppress the transport of heat and enhance the performance of materials on an extremely small and unprecedented scale.”
Tiny molecules, vast potential
Developing the world’s strongest set of ears to measure and document never-before-seen phonon behavior is one thing. But just what exactly are these tiny vibrations capable of?
“This is only the beginning for molecular phononics,” said Yelishala. “New-age materials and electronics have a long list of concerns when it comes to heat dissipation. Our research will help us study the chemistry, physical behavior and heat management in molecules so that we can address these concerns.”
Take an organic material, like a polymer, as an example. Its low thermal conductivity and susceptibility to temperature changes often poses great risks, such as overheating and degradation.
Maybe one day, with the help of phonon interference research, scientists and engineers can develop a new molecular design. One that turns a polymer into a metal-like material that can harness constructive phonon vibrations to enhance thermal transport.
The technique can even play a large role in areas like thermoelectricity, otherwise known as the use of heat to generate electricity. Reducing heat flow and suppressing thermal transport in this discipline can enhance the efficiency of thermoelectric devices and pave the way for clean energy usage.
The group says this study is just the tip of the iceberg for them, too. Their next projects and collaborations with CU Boulder chemists will expand on this phenomenon and use this novel technique to explore other phononic characteristics on a molecular scale.
“Phonons travel virtually in all materials,” Yelishala said. “Therefore we can guide advancements in any natural and artificially made materials at the smallest possible level using our ultra-sensitive probes.”
END
New discovery shows how molecules can mute heat like music
2025-05-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Dementia rates in China are rising disproportionately
2025-05-07
The burden of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in China is higher than in most countries and increasing at a faster rate than the global average, according to a new study published May 7, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Siyu Liu and Daoying Geng of Fudan University, China.
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias (ADD) are an increasingly serious global health issue, with rates rising worldwide. There is currently a lack of understanding of the disease burden and risk factors of ADD specifically in China, despite being one of the countries ...
India has one of the world’s highest densities of snow leopards
2025-05-07
Most of India’s snow leopard population live in a remote region in the north of the country, where they co-exist alongside rural communities, according to a study publishing May 7, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Pankaj Raina at Union Territory of Ladakh's Department of Wildlife Protection, and colleagues.
To effectively conserve wild carnivores, researchers need accurate data on their population size and distribution. However, gathering this data has proved particularly challenging for snow leopards (Panthera uncia) because of their shy nature and preference for remote, rugged terrain. Researchers assessed the population size and distribution of snow leopards ...
Although our general tendency to be curious may decrease with age, our situational or "state" curiosity might actually increase across the lifespan, which might help boost well-being and cognitive out
2025-05-07
Although our general tendency to be curious may decrease with age, our situational or "state" curiosity might actually increase across the lifespan, which might help boost well-being and cognitive outcomes in older age
Article URL: https://plos.io/3SatjAg
Article title: Curiosity across the adult lifespan: Age-related differences in state and trait curiosity
Author countries: U.S., Germany
Funding: National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) Award Number R01AG044335 to AC: https://www.nia.nih.gov/ Leverhulme ...
People displaying high problematic (excessive and dependent) social media use are more likely to engage with and believe fake news
2025-05-07
People displaying high problematic (excessive and dependent) social media use are more likely to engage with and believe fake news
Article URL: https://plos.io/3EFkKKP
Article title: Problematic social media use is associated with believing in and engaging with fake news
Author countries: U.S.
Funding: DM and MDM received funding for this research from the Michigan State University Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. END ...
Better physical health probably follows religious and spiritual engagement, rather than vice versa, per six year longitudinal US study aiming to tease out this relationship
2025-05-07
Better physical health probably follows religious and spiritual engagement, rather than vice versa, per six year longitudinal U.S. study aiming to tease out this relationship
Article URL: https://plos.io/42vnJyK
Article title: “Which comes first”: Religious/spiritual engagement or health? Initial observations from longitudinal analyses
Author countries: U.S.
Funding: Dr. Neal Krause received funding for Wave 1 of this study (Grant ID: 40077), and Dr. Gail Ironson received funding for Wave 2 of this study (Grant ID: 61430), from ...
Excess weight, including overweight and obesity, is linked with experiencing Long COVID neurological symptoms including headaches, vertigo, sleep problems and depression, per meta-analysis of studies
2025-05-07
Excess weight, including overweight and obesity, is linked with experiencing Long Covid neurological symptoms including headaches, vertigo, sleep problems and depression, per meta-analysis of studies comprising almost 140,000 total participants
Article URL: https://plos.io/4lNLY2G
Article title: Excess weight is associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID-19 condition: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Author countries: Brazil, Australia, China
Funding: This research received a grant from the ...
Are you curious? It might help you stay sharp as you age
2025-05-07
What is the trick to aging successfully? If you’re curious about learning the answer, you might already be on the right track, according to an international team of psychologists including several from UCLA. Their research shows that some forms of curiosity can increase well into old age and suggests that older adults who maintain curiosity and want to learn new things relevant to their interests may be able to offset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Conversely, those who show muted curiosity and disinterest may be at risk for dementia. The finding contradicts prior research that showed that curiosity ...
In Reddit posts about climate change, just 1 in 25 links are to scientific sources - versus mass media and social media sources - evidencing the lack of science-based debate
2025-05-07
In Reddit posts about climate change, just 1 in 25 links are to scientific sources - versus mass media and social media sources - evidencing the lack of science-based debate.
####
Article URL: https://plos.io/4jZKIYA
Article Title: The role of science in the climate change discussions on Reddit
Author Countries: Austria, Italy
Funding: The authors acknowledge support from the Lagrange Project of the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation (ISI Foundation, to PC, MT, KK, DP, YM) funded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Fondazione CRT), Italy. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, ...
4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities
2025-05-07
4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency. 4 in 10 mpox social media memes spread misinformation or stigmatize minorities, though the majority are accurate and promote awareness, per analysis of 200 memes circulated during the global public health emergency.
####
Article URL: https://plos.io/42ZABMv
Article Title: Short communication: Mpox memes, the gift that conceals a blade
Author Countries: Uganda
Funding: The authors received no specific funding ...
Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor visually observed in seventy years, revealing gaps and bias in ocean exploration and global biodiversity understanding
2025-05-07
(Saunderstown, RI — May 7, 2025) In a groundbreaking study published today in Science Advances, researchers from Ocean Discovery League reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged. Despite covering 66% of Earth's surface, the deep ocean remains largely unexplored. The study, "How Little We've Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor," is the first to document that, in decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor. This total area is roughly the size of Rhode Island or one-tenth the size of ...