https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30793-6
Regular Article
Thermal transport through a one-dimensional quantum spin-1/2 chain heterostructure: The role of three-site spin interaction
College of Sciences, Northeastern University,
Shenyang
110819, P.R.
China
a
e-mail: gwjneu@163.com
Received:
31
August
2012
Received in final form:
18
October
2012
Published online:
26
December
2012
We study the thermal transport through a quantum spin-1/2 chain heterostructure, which consists of a finite-size chain with two-site isotropic XY interaction and three-site XZX+YZY interaction coupled at its ends to two semi-infinite isotropic XY chains. After performing Jordan-Wigner transformation, we map the original spin Hamiltonian into a fermion Hamiltonian and express the heat current with a nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism. Then, the heat current as functions of the structure parameters are studied in detail. As a result, we observe that a finite magnetic field applied at the finite-size chain can efficiently induce the heat current asymmetry with ΔΩ (ΔΩ is the magnetic field difference between the finite-size chain and the semi-infinite chains). Accordingly, such a magnetic field can be viewed as a switch in manipulating the heat current.
Key words: Mesoscopic and Nanoscale Systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2012