Fig. 2: Measured and computationally predicted conductance between the source and the drain device.

a Thermal resistance network corresponding to the thermal transistor. Both the suspended source and drain membranes have a total thermal conductance of G_Th, while the gate has a beam conductance of G_Gate. The thermal conductance between the source and the drain is represented by G_S-D. The height of the gate is adjusted using a piezoelectric actuator and a stepper motor, separated from the source-drain device by a gap distance d. Devices are placed in an environment at ambient temperature, T_Amb. b Time series of a representative measurement as the gate approaches the source-drain device at 25 °C. The top graph shows the measured gap distance (d) between the source-drain device and the gate until contact. The middle and bottom panels show the amplitude of temperature oscillations for the source (ΔT_S) and the drain (ΔT_D), respectively, as a function of time. c Experimental data for G_S–D as a function of the gap size (d). The effect of the phase transition can be clearly seen when the temperature of the gate changes from 25 °C to 117 °C. A noticeable change in G_S–D was observed when the gate temperature crossed the phase transition threshold (from 68 °C to 83 °C). d SCUFF-EM calculations of G_S–D when the gate is in the insulator and metallic phases. It can be clearly seen that there is a good qualitative agreement with the experimental data in panel (c).