Scientists have made a breakthrough that could change how future computers and electronic devices stay cool.
For the first time, researchers have shown that heat can travel through a solid material in organized, wave-like paths at room temperature instead of simply spreading in every direction.
The discovery could lead to smarter ways of controlling heat in electronics, helping devices run faster, last longer, and use energy more efficiently.
The research was led by engineers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and was published in the journal Nature Physics.
Modern electronic devices, from smartphones and laptops to artificial intelligence systems and data centers, generate large amounts of heat while operating.
If this heat is not removed efficiently, devices can slow down, become less reliable, or even fail.
Finding better ways to manage heat has become one of the biggest challenges in designing next-generation electronics.
Normally, heat moves through solid materials in all directions, much like a drop of food coloring spreading through a glass of water. This random movement makes it difficult to guide heat away from sensitive components.
However, the UCLA researchers found that in a special material called boron arsenide, heat behaves very differently. Instead of spreading evenly, it travels along narrow, ray-like pathways that are determined by the material’s crystal structure. The scientists compared this behavior to the way optical fibers guide light through specific paths.
Heat in solids is carried by tiny vibrations of atoms known as phonons. These vibrations have quantum properties, meaning they follow the rules of quantum physics. For many years, scientists believed that this wave-like behavior only survived at extremely cold temperatures, close to absolute zero, because heat-carrying vibrations collide with each other much more often at room temperature.
In the past, researchers had only observed this effect under cryogenic conditions, making it difficult to use in real-world technology. The new study shows that this unusual behavior can also occur at everyday temperatures.
To observe the effect, the research team developed a new technique that maps temperature at an extremely small scale. When they examined ordinary materials, they saw the expected circular patterns as heat spread outward in every direction.
When they tested boron arsenide, the results were completely different. The heat formed bright, ray-like patterns that followed the crystal’s internal structure instead of spreading randomly. The direction of these heat rays changed depending on how the crystal was positioned, creating several distinct geometric patterns.
The researchers also found that this organized heat movement could continue over distances of at least one micrometer and possibly tens of micrometers. Although these distances are tiny, they are large enough to be useful in many modern electronic, photonic, and quantum devices, where components themselves are often microscopic.
The team believes this discovery could eventually help engineers design electronic chips that guide heat exactly where it needs to go instead of simply trying to remove it after it builds up. This could improve cooling in powerful processors used for artificial intelligence, advanced computing, aerospace systems, and many other technologies that struggle with overheating.
The findings may also have applications beyond traditional electronics. Because phonons interact with electrons and other energy-carrying particles, better control of these vibrations could support future developments in quantum computing, quantum communication, and highly sensitive scientific sensors.
The new work builds on earlier research by the same group, which first demonstrated the remarkable thermal properties of boron arsenide several years ago. Its ability to allow heat-carrying vibrations to travel long distances with very little scattering makes it an unusual material for thermal management.
By showing that quantum heat waves can exist at room temperature, the researchers have opened an exciting new area of research.
Instead of treating heat as something that simply spreads and must be removed, future technologies may be able to direct it with remarkable precision, creating cooler, more efficient, and more reliable electronic devices.
