Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T00:47:14.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heat Transport between Heat Reservoirs Mediated by Quantum Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2013

George Y. Panasyuk ,
George A. Levin  and
Kirk L. Yerkes
George Y. Panasyuk
Affiliation:
Aerospace System Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, U.S.A.
George A. Levin
Affiliation:
Aerospace System Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, U.S.A.
Kirk L. Yerkes
Affiliation:
Aerospace System Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, U.S.A.
Get access

Abstract

We explore a model of heat transport between two heat reservoirs mediated by a quantum particle. The reservoirs are modeled as ensembles of harmonic modes linearly coupled to the mediator. The steady state heat current, as well as the thermal conductance are obtained for arbitrary coupling strength and will be analyzed for the cases of weak and strong coupling regimes. It is shown that the violation of the virial theorem – the imbalance between the average potential and kinetic energy of the mediator – can be considered as a measure of the coupling strength that takes into account all the relevant factors. The dependence of the thermal conductance on the coupling strength is non-monotonic and displays a maximum. Temperature dependence of the heat conductance may reach a plateau at intermediate temperatures, similar to the classical plateau at high temperatures. We will discuss the origin of Fourier’s law in a chain of macroscopically large, but finite subsystems coupled by the quantum mediators. We will also address the origin of the anomalously large heat current between the scanning tunneling microscope tip and the substrate in deep vacuum which was found in recent experiments.

Keywords

thermal conductivitysimulationnanostructure
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1543: Symposium V – Nanoscale Thermoelectric Materials, Transport Phenomena, and Applications to Solid-State Cooling and Power Generation , 2013 , pp. 43 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dubi, Y. and Di Ventra, M., Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 131 (2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molecular Electronics, edited by Jortner, J. and Ratner, M. (Blackwell Science, Oxford, 1997).Google Scholar
Caldeira, A.O. and Leggett, A.J., Physica 121 A, 587 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nieuwenhuizen, Th. M. and Allahverdyan, A. E., Phys. Rev. E 66, 036102 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, D., Nitzan, A., and Hanggi, P., J. Chem. Phys. 119, 6840 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altfeder, I., Voevodin, A.A., and Roy, A.K., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 166101 (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panasyuk, G.Y., Levin, G.A., and Yerkes, K.L., Phys. Rev. E 86, 021116 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, J.P., Imaging Phonons: Acoustic Wave Propagation in Solids (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bylholder, G. and Sheets, R., J. Phys. Chem. 74, 4335 (1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volokitin, A.I. and Persson, B.N.J., Rev. Mod. Phys. 79, 1291 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Abdallah, P. and Joulain, K., Phys. Rev. B 82, 121419(R) (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar