We study heat transport in quantum spin systems analytically and numerically. First, we demonstrate that heat current through a two-level quantum spin system can be modulated from zero to a finite value by tuning a magnetic field. Second, we show that a spin system, consisting of two dissimilar parts - one is gapped and the other is gapless, exhibits current rectification and negative differential thermal resistance. Possible experimental realizations by using molecular junctions or magnetic materials are discussed.
Developing simplified, but accurate, theoretical approaches to treat heat transport on all length and time scales is needed to further enable scientific insight and technology innovation. Using a simplified form of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), originally developed for electron transport, we demonstrate how ballistic phonon effects and finite-velocity propagation are easily and naturally captured. We show how this approach compares well to the phonon BTE, and readily handles a full phonon dispersion and energy-dependent mean-free-path. This study of transient heat transport shows i) …
Heat transport in the quantum Hall regime is investigated using micron-scale heaters and thermometers positioned along the edge of a millimeter-scale two dimensional electron system (2DES). The heaters rely on localized current injection into the 2DES, while the thermometers are based on the thermoelectric effect. In the $ν= 1$ integer quantized Hall state, a thermoelectric signal appears at an edge thermometer only when it is "downstream," in the sense of electronic edge transport, from the heater. When the distance between the heater and the thermometer is increased, the thermoelectric signa…
We study nondiffusive thermal transport by phonons at small distances within the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) and demonstrate that the transport is significantly affected by the distribution of phonons emitted by the source. We discuss analytical solutions of the steady-state BTE for a source with a sinusoidal spatial profile, as well as for a three- dimensional Gaussian hot spot, and provide numerical results for single crystal silicon at room temperature. If a micro/nanoscale heat source produces a thermal phonon distribution, it gets hotter than predicted by the heat …
Heat transport by acoustic phonons in 2D materials is fundamentally different from that in 3D crystals because the out-of-plane phonons propagate in a unique way that strongly depends on tension and bending rigidity. Since in-plane and out-of-plane phonon baths are decoupled, initial studies suggested they provide independent pathways for heat transport and storage in 2D materials. Here, we induce tension in freestanding graphene membranes by electrostatic force, and use optomechanical techniques to demonstrate that it can change the rate of heat transport by as much as 33%. Using a ballistic …
We demonstrate a direct approach to investigate heat transport in the fractional quantum Hall regime. At filling factor of 4/3, we inject power at quantum point contacts and detect the related heating from the activated current through a quantum dot. The experiment reveals a chargeless heat transport from a significant heating that occurs upstream of the power injection point, in the absence of a concomitant electrical current. By tuning in-situ the edge path, we show that the chargeless heat transport does not follow the reverse direction of the electrical current path along the edge. This un…
Unlike classical heat diffusion at the macroscale, nanoscale heat transport can occur without energy dissipation because phonons can travel in straight lines for hundreds of nanometres. Despite recent experimental evidence of such ballistic phonon transport, control over its directionality, and thus its practical use, remains a challenge, as the directions of individual phonons are chaotic. Here, we show a way to control the directionality of ballistic phonon transport using silicon thin-films with arrays of holes. First, we demonstrate the formation of directional heat fluxes in the passages …
We investigate nonlinear heat properties in mesoscopic conductors using a scattering theory of transport. Our approach is based on a leading-order expansion in both the electrical and thermal driving forces. Beyond linear response, the transport coefficients are functions of the nonequilibrium screening potential that builds up in the system due to interactions. Within a mean-field approximation, we self-consistently calculate the heat rectification properties of a quantum dot attached to two terminals. We discuss nonlinear contributions to the Peltier effect and find departures from the Wiede…
Metallic atomic junctions pose the ultimate limit to the scaling of electrical contacts. They serve as model systems to probe electrical and thermal transport down to the atomic level as well as quantum effects occurring in one-dimensional systems. Charge transport in atomic junctions has been studied intensively in the last two decades. However, heat transport remains poorly characterized because of significant experimental challenges. Specifically the combination of high sensitivity to small heat fluxes and the formation of stable atomic contacts has been a major hurdle for the development o…
We investigate heat transport through an assembly consisting of a two-level system coupled between two harmonic oscillators, which is described by the quantum Rabi model, as a prototype of nanoscale heat devices using controllable multi-level systems. Using the noninteracting-blip approximation (NIBA), we find that the linear thermal conductance shows a characteristic temperature dependence with a two-peak structure. We also show that heat transport is sensitive to model parameters for weak system-bath coupling and strong hybridization between the two-level system and the harmonic oscillators.…
We show that the local temperature dependence of thermalized electron and phonon populations along metallic carbon nanotubes is the main reason behind this non-linear transport characteristics in the high bias regime. Our model that considers optical and zone boundary phonon emission as well as absorption by charge carriers is based on the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation that assumes a local temperature along the nanotube, determined self-consistently with the heat transport equation. By using realistic transport parameters, our results not only reproduce experimental data for ele…
Nonlinear transport coefficients do not obey, in general, reciprocity relations. We here discuss the magnetic-field asymmetries that arise in thermoelectric and heat transport of mesoscopic systems. Based on a scattering theory of weakly nonlinear transport, we analyze the leading-order symmetry parameters in terms of the screening potential response to either voltage or temperature shifts. We apply our general results to a quantum Hall antidot system. Interestingly, we find that certain symmetry parameters show a dependence on the measurement configuration.
With this study we analyze the fluctuations of an electronic only heat current across a molecular wire. The wire is composed of a single energy level which connects to two leads which are held at different temperatures. By use of the Green function method we derive the finite frequency power spectral density (PSD) of the emerging heat current fluctuations. This result assumes a form quite distinct from the power spectral density of the accompanying electric current noise. The complex expression simplifies considerably in the limit of zero frequency, yielding the heat noise intensity. The heat …
Previous studies have predicted the failure of Fourier's law of thermal conduction due to the existence of wave like propagation of heat with finite propagation speed. This non-Fourier thermal transport phenomenon can appear in both the hydrodynamic and (quasi) ballistic regimes. Hence, it is not easy to clearly distinguish these two non-Fourier regimes only by this phenomenon. In this work, the transient heat propagation in homogeneous thermal system is studied based on the phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) under the Callaway model. Given a quasi-one or quasi-two (three) dimensional s…
We have calculated the temperature profiles for phonon heat transport in a suspended membrane with a radially symmetric heat source in the two extreme cases of either fully ballistic or fully diffusive transport. Theoretical results confirm that it is possible to distinguish these two transport mechanisms from the radial temperature profiles alone. Models are also compared to experimental data measured with 40 nm thick, free standing silicon nitride membranes below 1 K by using tunnel junction (SINIS) thermometers. The measured temperature profile is qualitatively in agreement with the ballist…
We study the backaction of quantum measurements on heat transport through a two-level system by considering the continuous quantum measurement onto an eigenstate of the two-level system. For the nonselective measurement, the backaction appears as a dephasing effect on the two-level system. We formulate the heat current under the selective measurement with a stochastic master equation and show that the cross-correlation between the measurement outcomes and the heat current contains information on the backaction. We expect that our findings can be verified by using a platform of superconducting …
Decades of research on thermoelectrics stimulated by the fact that nano- and meso-scale thermoelectric transport could yield higher energy conversion efficiency and output power has recently uncovered a new direction on inelastic thermoelectric effects. We introduce the history, motivation, and perspectives on mesoscopic inelastic thermoelectric effects.
We present a theoretical study of the quantum critical behavior in heat transport via a two-state system with sub-ohmic reservoirs. We calculate the temperature dependence of the thermal conductance near the quantum phase transition via the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method and discuss its critical exponents. We also propose a superconducting circuit to realize the sub-ohmic spin-boson model that can be used to observe quantum critical phenomena.
We discuss heat transport through a Josephson tunnel junction under various bias conditions. We first derive the formula for the cooling power of the junction valid for arbitrary time dependence of the Josephson phase. Combining it with the classical equation of motion for the phase, we find the time averaged cooling power as a function of bias current or bias voltage. We also find the noise of the heat current and, more generally, the full counting statistics of the heat transport through the junction. We separately consider the metastable superconducting branch of the current-voltage charact…
Heat transport in spin-boson systems near the thermal equilibrium is systematically investigated. An asymptotically exact expression for the thermal conductance in a low-temperature regime wherein transport is described via a co-tunneling mechanism is derived. This formula predicts the power-law temperature dependence of thermal conductance $\propto T^{2s+1}$ for a thermal environment of spectral density with the exponent $s$. An accurate numerical simulation is performed using the quantum Monte Carlo method, and these predictions are confirmed for arbitrary thermal baths. Our numerical calcul…
We study nonequilibrium edge state transport in the fractional quantum Hall regime for states with one or several counter-propagating neutral modes. We consider a setup in which the neutral modes are heated by a hot spot, and where heat transported by the neutral modes causes a temperature difference between the upper and lower edges in a Hall bar. This temperature difference is probed by the excess noise it causes for scattering across a quantum point contact. We find that the excess noise in the quantum point contact provides evidence for counter-propagating neutral modes, and we calculate i…
Quantum thermodynamics is emerging both as a topic of fundamental research and as means to understand and potentially improve the performance of quantum devices. A prominent platform for achieving the necessary manipulation of quantum states is superconducting circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). In this platform, thermalization of a quantum system can be achieved by interfacing the circuit QED subsystem with a thermal reservoir of appropriate Hilbert dimensionality. Here we study heat transport through an assembly consisting of a superconducting qubit capacitively coupled between two nomina…
Studies of thermally induced transport in nanostructures provide access to an exciting regime where fluctuations are relevant, enabling the investigation of fundamental thermodynamic concepts and the realization of thermal energy harvesters. We study a serial double quantum dot formed in an InAs/InP nanowire coupled to two electron reservoirs. By means of a specially designed local metallic joule-heater, the temperature of the phonon bath in the vicinity of the double quantum dot can be enhanced. This results in phonon-assisted transport, enabling the conversion of local heat into electrical p…
We revisit a theory of heat transport in the light of a gauge theory of gravity and find the proper heat current with a corresponding gauge field, which yields the natural definitions of the heat magnetization and the Kubo-formula contribution to the thermal conductivity as torsional responses. We also develop a general framework for calculating gravitational responses by combining the Keldysh and Cartan formalisms. By using this framework, we explicitly calculate these two quantities and reproduce the Wiedemann-Franz law for the thermal Hall conductivity in the clean and non-interacting case.…
Heat flux exchanged between two hot bodies at subwavelength separation distances can exceed the limit predicted by the blackbody theory. However this super-Planckian transfer is restricted to these separation distances. Here we demonstrate the possible existence of a super-Planckian transfer at arbitrary large separation distances if the interacting bodies are connected in near-field with weakly dissipating hyperbolic waveguides. This result opens the way to long distance transport of near-field thermal energy.
We study the charge transport and the heat transfer through a nano-junction composed of a small metallic grain weakly coupled to two metallic leads. We focus on the cotunneling regime out-of-equilibrium, where the bias voltage and the temperature gradient between the leads strongly drive electron and phonon degrees of freedom in the grain that in turn have a strong feedback on the transport through the grain. We derive and solve coupled kinetic equations for electron and phonon degrees of freedom in the grain. We obtain the heat fluxes between cotunneling electrons, bosonic electron-hole excit…
The understanding and modeling of the heat transport across nanometer and sub-nanometer gaps where the distinction between thermal radiation and conduction become blurred remains an open question. In this work, we present a three-dimensional atomistic simulation framework by combining the molecular dynamics (MD) and phonon non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) methods. The relaxed atomic configuration and interaction force constants of metallic nanogaps are generated from MD as inputs into harmonic phonon NEGF. Phonon tunneling across gold-gold and copper-copper nanogaps is quantified, and i…
We study the heat transport due to phonons in nanomechanical structures using a phase space representation of non-equilibrium Green's functions. This representation accounts for the atomic degrees of freedom making it particularly suited for the description of small (molecular) junctions systems. We show that for the steady state limit our formalism correctly recovers the heuristic Landauer-like heat conductance for a quantum coherent molecular system coupled to thermal reservoirs. We find general expressions for the non-stationary heat current due to an external periodic drive. In both cases …
We investigated how dimensionality affects heat transport in Si-Ge superlattices by computing the thermal conductivity of planar superlattices and arrays of Ge nanowires and nanodots embedded in Si. We studied superlattices with $\sim$10 nm periods using a fully atomistic Monte Carlo solution of the Boltzmann transport equation in the relaxation time approximation. We found that for periods larger than 4 nm, the room temperature cross-plane conductivity of planar superlattices with equally thick Si and Ge layers is larger than that of their nanowire and dot counterparts of similar sizes (up to…
We examine the electronic heat transport phenomena in nanoscale junctions composed of organic molecules coupled to two metallic reservoirs of different temperatures. The electronic heat flux and its dynamical noise properties are calculated within the scattering (Landauer) formalism with the transmission probability determined by using non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF technique). The method based on Taylor series expansion is used to determine nonlinear corrections to the electronic heat flux and its noise power spectral density with up to the second order terms with respect to the temp…
We show that charge fluctuation processes are crucial for the nonlinear heat conductance through an interacting nanostructure, even far from a resonance. We illustrate this for an Anderson quantum dot accounting for the first two leading orders of the tunneling in a master equation. The often made assumption that off-resonant transport proceeds entirely by virtual occupation of charge states, underlying exchange-scattering models, can fail dramatically for heat transport. The identified energy-transport resonances in the Coulomb blockade regime provide new qualitative information about relaxat…
The study of quantum heat transport in superconducting circuits is significant for further understanding the connection between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, and for possible applications for quantum information. The first experimental realisations of devices demonstrating photonic heat transport mediated by a qubit have already been designed and measured. Motivated by the analysis of such experimental results, and for future experimental designs, we numerically evaluate the photonic heat transport of qubit-resonator devices in the linear circuit regime through electromagnetic simulati…
In this paper, we present a Hamiltonian and thermodynamic theory of heat transport on various levels of description. Transport of heat is formulated within kinetic theory of polarized phonons, kinetic theory of unpolarized phonons, hydrodynamics of polarized phonons, and hydrodynamics of unpolarized phonons. These various levels of description are linked by Poisson reductions, where no linearizations are made. Consequently, we obtain a new phonon hydrodynamics that contains convective terms dependent on vorticity of the heat flux, which are missing in the standard theories of phonon hydrodynam…
There has been much interest in semiconductor superlattices because of showing very low thermal conductivities. This makes them especially suitable for applications in a variety of devices for thermoelectric generation of energy, heat control at the nanometric length scale, etc. Recent experiments have confirmed that the effective thermal conductivity of superlattices at room temperature have a minimum for very short periods (in the order of nanometers) as some kinetic calculations had anticipated previously. This work will show advances on a thermodynamic theory of heat transport in nanometri…
In this Colloquium recent advances in the field of quantum heat transport are reviewed. This topic has been investigated theoretically for several decades, but only during the past twenty years have experiments on various mesoscopic systems become feasible. A summary of the theoretical basis for describing heat transport in one-dimensional channels is first provided. Then the main experimental investigations of quantized heat conductance due to phonons, photons, electrons, and anyons in such channels are presented. These experiments are important for understanding the fundamental processes tha…
We introduce a new thermal transport phenomenon, a unidirectional selection-rule blockade, and show how it produces unprecedented rectification of bosonic heat flow through molecular or mesoscopic quantum systems. Rectification arises from the quantization of energy levels of the conduction element and selection rules of reservoir coupling operators. The simplest system exhibiting the selection-rule blockade is an appropriately coupled three-level system, providing a candidate for a high-performance heat diode. We present an analytical treatment of the transport problem and discuss how the phe…
Quantum heat transport devices are currently intensively studied in theory. Experimental realization of quantum heat transport devices is a challenging task. So far, they have been mostly investigated in experiments with ultra-cold atoms and single atomic traps. Experiments with superconducting qubits have also been carried out and heat transport and heat rectification has been studied in two terminal devices. The structures with three independent terminals offer additional opportunities for realization of heat transistors, heat switches, on-chip masers and even more complicated devices. Here …
We show that in mesoscopic four-terminal thermoelectric devices with two electrodes (the source and the drain) and two heat baths, inelastic scattering processes can lead to unconventional thermoelectric transport. The source (or the drain) can be cooled by passing a thermal current between the two heat baths, with no net heat exchange between the heat baths and the electrodes. This effect, termed as cooling by heat current, is a mesoscopic heat drag effect. In addition, there is a transverse thermoelectric effect where electrical current and power can be generated by a transverse temperature …
In this work, the heat vortexes in two-dimensional porous or ribbon structures are investigated based on the phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) under the Callaway model. First, the separate thermal effects of normal (N) scattering and resistive (R) scattering are investigated with frequency-independent assumptions. And then the heat vortexes in graphene are studied as a specific example. It is found that the heat vortexes can appear in both ballistic (rare R/N scattering) and hydrodynamic (N scattering dominates) regimes but disappear in the diffusive (R scattering dominates) regime. As…
We study classical heat conduction in a dissipative open system composed of interacting oscillators. By exactly solving a twisted Fokker-Planck equation which describes the full counting statistics of heat flux flowing through the system, we identify the geometric-phase-like effect and examine its impact on the classical heat transport. Particularly, we find that the nonlinear interaction as well as the closely related temperature-dependence of system-parameters are crucial in manifesting the geometric-phase contribution of heat flux. Finally, we propose an electronic experiment based on RC ci…
Kitaev spin liquids (KSLs) contain both itinerant Majorana fermions and localized $Z_2$ flux excitations. The mobile fermions transport energy, while the fluxes hinder heat flow. By controlling the flux configuration, one can separate a KSL into different domains via $Z_2$ flux walls. We show that at low temperatures, the wall significantly suppresses the Majorana-mediated Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction and blocks the heat transfer between domains.
We derive rigorous quantum mechanical bounds for the heat current through a nanojunction connecting two thermal baths at different temperatures. Based on exact sum rules, these bounds compliment the well-known quantum of thermal conductance $κ_Q \equiv πk^2_B T/6\hbar$, which provides a bound for low-temperature heat transport in all systems, but is saturated only for noninteracting transport. In contrast, our bounds are saturated at high temperatures---but still in the quantum regime---, even when interactions are very strong. We evaluate these bounds for harmonic and strongly anharmonic junc…
Radiative heat-transport mediated by near-field interactions is known to be superdiffusive in dilute, many-body systems. In this Letter we use a generalized Landauer theory of radiative heat transfer in many-body planar systems to demonstrate a nonmonotonic transition from superdiffusive to ballistic transport in dense systems. We show that such a transition is associated to a change of the polarization of dominant modes, leading to dramatically different thermal relaxation dynamics spanning over three orders of magnitude. This result could have important consequences on thermal management at …
We study heat conduction in quantum disordered harmonic chains connected to general heat reservoirs which are modeled as infinite collection of oscillators. Formal exact expressions for the thermal current are obtained and it is shown that, in some special cases, they reduce to Landauer-like forms. The asymptotic system size dependence of the current is analysed and is found to be similar to the classical case. It is a power law dependence and the power depends on the spectral properties of the reservoirs.
A theory of transverse electron transport coupled with heat transfer in semiconductor thin films is developed conceptually modeling structures of modern electronics. The transverse currents generate Joule heat with positive feedback through thermally activated conductivity. This can lead to instability known as thermal runaway, or hot spot, or reversible thermal breakdown. A theory here is based on the optimum fluctuation method modified to describe saddle stationary points determining the rate of such instabilities and conditions under which they evolve. Depending on the material and system p…
We discuss the low-frequency response of charge and heat transport to oscillatory voltage and temperature shifts in mesoscopic capacitors. We obtain within scattering theory generic expressions for the quantum admittances up to second order in the ac frequencies in terms of electric, thermoelectric and heat capacitances and relaxation resistances. Remarkably, we find that the thermocurrent can lead or lag the applied temperature depending on the gate voltage applied to a quantum $RC$ circuit. Furthermore, the relaxation resistance for cross terms becomes nonuniversal as opposed to the purely e…
We discuss how phase coherence manifests in the heat transport through superconducting single and multichannel Josephson junctions in time dependent situations. We consider the heat current driven through the junction by a temperature difference in dc voltage and ac phase biased situations. At low bias, the electromagnetic driving mainly modifies the form of the coherent resonance that transports a large part of the heat current, rather than simply dissipating energy in the junction. We find a description for the heat current in terms of quasiparticle n-photon absorption and emission rates, an…
Measuring heat flow through nanoscale systems poses formidable practical difficulties as there is no `ampere meter' for heat. We propose to overcome this problem by realizing heat transport through a chain of trapped ions. Laser cooling the chain edges to different temperatures induces a current of local vibrations (vibrons). We show how to efficiently control and measure this current, including fluctuations, by coupling vibrons to internal ion states. This demonstrates that ion crystals provide a suitable platform for studying quantum transport, e.g., through thermal analogues of quantum wire…
We review studies of vibrational energy transfer in a molecular junction geometry, consisting of a molecule bridging two heat reservoirs, solids or large chemical compounds. This setup is of interest for applications in molecular electronics, thermoelectrics, and nanophononics, and for addressing basic questions in the theory of classical and quantum transport. Calculations show that system size, disorder, structure, dimensionality, internal anharmonicities, contact interaction, and quantum coherent effects, are factors that interplay to determine the predominant mechanism (ballistic/diffusive…
Understanding thermal transport from nanoscale heat sources is important for a fundamental description of energy flow in materials, as well as for many technological applications including thermal management in nanoelectronics, thermoelectric devices, nano-enhanced photovoltaics and nanoparticle-mediated thermal therapies. Thermal transport at the nanoscale is fundamentally different from that at the macroscale and is determined by the distribution of carrier mean free paths in a material, the length scales of the heat sources, and the distance over which heat is transported. Past work has sho…
In this article, we address lattice heat transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by a quantum mechanical calculation of three-phonon scattering rates in the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Under a consistent choice of an empirical, realistic atomic interaction potential, we compare the tube length dependence of the lattice thermal conductivity (TC) at room temperature determined from an iterative solution of the BTE and from a nonequilibrium MD (NEMD) approach. Qualitatively similar trends are found in the limit o…
