Retraction: A photon thermal diode.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6446.

A photon thermal diode.

A thermal diode is a two-terminal nonlinear device that rectifies energy carriers (for example, photons, phonons and electrons) in the thermal domain, the heat transfer analogue to the familiar electrical diode. Effective thermal rectifiers could have an impact on diverse applications ranging from heat engines to refrigeration, thermal regulation of buildings and thermal logic. However, experimental demonstrations have lagged far behind theoretical proposals.