Thermal rectification in the one-dimensional nonlinearly graded rotor lattice robust in the thermodynamical limit

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that thermal rectification persists in large one-dimensional rotor lattices with nonlinear graded structures, and its efficiency can be enhanced by tuning the grading details, offering insights for thermal management in extended systems.

Contribution

It shows that nonlinear graded structures in rotor lattices maintain thermal rectification in the thermodynamical limit and can be optimized for better efficiency.

Findings

TR remains robust in large systems with graded structures

Efficiency depends on the specific grading details

Nonlinear grading can enhance TR effects

Abstract

Recently, it has been shown that in graded systems, thermal rectification (TR) effect may remain in the thermodynamical limit. Here, by taking the one-dimensional rotor lattice as an illustrating model, we investigate how the graded structure may affect the TR efficiency. In particular, we consider the case where the interaction is assigned with nonlinear polynomial functions. It is found that TR is robust in the thermodynamical limit and meanwhile its efficiency may considerably depend on the details of the graded structure. This finding suggests that it is possible to enhance the TR effect by taking into account the nonlinear graded structure even in large systems.