Quantum thermal diode with additional control by auxiliary atomic states
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Abstract
A quantum thermal diode, similar to an electronic diode, allows for unidirectional heat transmission. In this paper, we study a quantum thermal diode composed of two two-level atoms coupled to auxiliary two-level atoms. We find that the excited auxiliary atoms can weaken heat current and enhance the rectification effect, but the ground-state auxiliary atoms can enhance heat current and weaken the rectification effect. The more auxiliary atoms are coupled, the stronger the enhancing or weakening impact is. If the auxiliary atom is in a superposition state, we find that only the fraction that projects onto the excited state plays a significant role. In particular, if we properly design the coupling of the auxiliary atoms, the rectification effect can be eliminated. This provides the potential to control the heat current and the rectification performance by the states of the auxiliary atoms.