Ballistic thermal rectification in nanoscale three-terminal junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates ballistic thermal transport in nanoscale three-terminal junctions, demonstrating rectification effects due to asymmetry and spin-phonon interactions, with potential implications for thermal management at the nanoscale.

Contribution

It reveals ballistic thermal rectification in both asymmetric and symmetric three-terminal structures, highlighting the role of incoherent phonon scattering and spin-phonon interactions.

Findings

Rectification occurs in asymmetric structures due to incoherent phonon scattering.

Spin-phonon interaction enables rectification in symmetric paramagnetic structures.

The study advances understanding of thermal control in nanoscale devices.

Abstract

We study ballistic thermal transport in three-terminal atomic nanojunctions by the nonequilibrium Green's function method. We find that there is ballistic thermal rectification in asymmetric three-terminal structures because of the incoherent phonon scattering from the control terminal. With spin-phonon interaction, we also find the ballistic thermal rectification even in symmetric three-terminal paramagnetic structures.