Operating molecular transistors as heat pumps

TL;DR

This paper explores how laser-driven molecular transistors can function as heat pumps, controlling heat flow between reservoirs via gate voltage and laser parameters, with potential applications in nanoscale thermal management.

Contribution

It introduces a simple theoretical framework for heat flux in laser-controlled molecular transistors and demonstrates their ability to pump heat directionally based on gate voltage.

Findings

Laser fields can induce net heat flow out of reservoirs.

Heat pump operation depends on system parameters and has a minimum temperature threshold.

The direction of heat flow is controllable via gate voltage.

Abstract

We study heat transport in transistor-like devices composed of two reservoirs and a gate electrode, with a ballistic electronic one-dimensional system connected between the two reservoirs and interacting with a laser field. We derive in a simple way an equation for the heat flux in terms of the Floquet-Green operator of the system. As a case example, we investigate a two-level transistor and find that the laser field can produce a net heat flow out of either one of the reservoirs. The direction of this flow is determined by the gate voltage. We study numerically the dependence of this heat-pump on the relevant parameters of the system and show that there is a minimum temperature below which it does not operate.