Selection-rule blockade and rectification in quantum heat transport

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel quantum heat transport phenomenon called selection-rule blockade, enabling unidirectional heat flow rectification in quantum systems, with potential applications in high-performance heat diodes.

Contribution

It presents the concept of selection-rule blockade, analyzes a three-level system as a heat diode, and discusses generalization to multilevel systems for quantum thermal rectification.

Findings

Unidirectional heat flow achieved through selection-rule blockade

Analytical model of heat transport in three-level quantum systems

Potential for high-performance quantum heat diodes

Abstract

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 phenomenon generalizes to multilevel systems.