Thermal rectification in classical and quantum systems: Searching for efficient thermal diodes

Abstract

This mini-review addresses a bedrock problem for the advance of phononics: the building of feasible and efficient thermal diodes. We revisit investigations in classical and quantum systems. For the classical anharmonic chains of oscillators, the most used model for the study of heat conduction in insulating solids, we recall the ubiquitous occurrence of thermal rectification in graded systems, and we show that the match between graded structures and long-range interactions is an efficient mechanism to increase the rectification factor. For the cases of genuine quantum models, we present the spin chains, such as the open XXZ model, as profitable systems for the occurrence of thermal rectification and other interesting related properties. In particular, we describe two cases of perfect diodes: one for the spin current, in a two-segmented XXZ model, and another one for the heat current in a simple quantum Ising model with long-range interactions. We believe that such results involving interesting rectification properties in simple models will stimulate more theoretical and experimental investigations on the subject.