Spin-Boson Thermal Rectifier

Rectification of heat transfer in nanodevices can be realized by combining the system inherent anharmonicity with structural asymmetry. We analyze this phenomenon within the simplest anharmonic system-a spin-boson nanojunction model. We consider two variants of the model that yield, for the first time, analytical solutions: a linear separable model in which the heat reservoirs contribute additively, and a nonseparable model suitable for a stronger system-bath interaction. Both models show asymmetric (rectifying) heat conduction when the couplings to the heat reservoirs are different.