  Heat flow control is essential for widespread applications of heating,
cooling, energy conversion and utilization. Here we demonstrate the first
observation of temperature-gated thermal rectification in vanadium dioxide
beams, in which an environment temperature actively modulates asymmetric heat
flow. In this three terminal device, there are two switchable states, which can
be accessed by global heating: Rectifier state and Resistor state. In the
Rectifier state, up to 28% thermal rectification is observed. In the Resistor
state, the thermal rectification is significantly suppressed (below 4%). This
temperature-gated rectifier can have substantial implications ranging from
autonomous thermal management of micro/nanoscale devices to thermal energy
conversion and storage.
