Asymmetric Properties of Heat Conduction in a One-Dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates heat conduction asymmetry in a 1D Frenkel-Kontorova model, revealing that rectification effects depend on coupling strength and system parameters, with different mechanisms driven by nonlinearity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that heat flux rectification in the model is limited to weak coupling regimes and can reverse with system changes, highlighting nonlinear effects.

Findings

Rectification occurs only under weak coupling conditions.

Reversal of rectification is observed with system size and interface modifications.

Different mechanisms drive asymmetric heat conduction, all rooted in nonlinearity.

Abstract

In this Letter, we show numerically that the rectifying effect of heat flux in a one-dimensional two-segment Frenkel-Kontorova chain demonstrated in recent literature is merely available under the limit of the weak coupling between the two constituent segments. Surprisingly, the rectifying effect will be reversed when the properties of the interface and the system size change. The two types of asymmetric heat conduction are dominated by different mechanisms, which are all induced by the nonlinearity. We further discuss the possibility of the experimental realization of thermal diode or rectifier devices.