Phase-coherent heat circulators with normal- or superconducting contacts

TL;DR

This paper explores phase-coherent heat circulators with normal or superconducting contacts, analyzing their efficiency, control mechanisms, and robustness against variations, highlighting that few transport channels suffice for good circulation performance.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of heat circulators with normal and superconducting contacts, emphasizing the role of transport channels and control via magnetic and superconducting phases.

Findings

Good circulation with few transport channels

Performance similar between normal and superconducting contacts

Control achieved through magnetic field and superconducting phases

Abstract

We investigate heat circulators where a phase coherent region is contacted by three leads that are either normal- or superconducting. A magnetic field, and potentially the superconducting phases, allow to control the preferential direction of the heat flow between the three-different temperature-biased contacts. The main goal of this study is to analyze the requirements for heat circulation in non-ideal devices, in particular focusing on sample-to-sample variations. Quite generally, we find that the circulation performance of the devices is good as long as only a few transport channels are involved. We compare the performance of circulators with normalconducting contacts to those with superconducting contacts and find that the circulation coefficient are essentially unchanged.