(Image credit: Osaka Metropolitan University) Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a programmable thermal device that can control where heat is radiated while remembering its configuration even after power is removed, a capability that could one day contribute to smarter thermal management in high-performance chips, silicon photonics, infrared sensors, and energy-harvesting systems. The work, published in Laser & Photonics Reviews, overcomes two longstanding obstacles that have prevented the practical realization of nonreciprocal thermal devices. Go deeper with TH Premium: Chipmaking The device combines a magneto-optical material — a material that changes its optical properties in the presence of a magnetic field — with a phase-change material known as germanium-antimony-tellurium (GST) to independently control how a surface absorbs and emits infrared radiation.…