Thermal transport in one-dimensional spin heterostructures

Abstract

We study heat transport in a one-dimensional inhomogeneous quantum spin-1/2 system. It consists of a finite-size XX spin chain coupled at its ends to semi-infinite XX and XY chains at different temperatures, which play the role of heat and spin reservoirs. After using the Jordan-Wigner transformation we map the original spin Hamiltonian into a fermionic Hamiltonian, which contains normal and pairing terms. We find the expressions for the heat currents and solve the problem with a nonequilibrium Green's-function formalism. We analyze the behavior of the heat currents as functions of the model parameters. When finite magnetic fields are applied at the two reservoirs, the system exhibits rectifying effects in the heat flow. © 2009 The American Physical Society.