Reversal of Thermal Rectification in Quantum Systems

Lifa Zhang, Yonghong Yan, Chang-Qin Wu, Jian-Sheng Wang, Baowen Li

Published 2009-11-13Version 1

We study thermal transport in anisotropic Heisenberg spin chains using the quantum master equation. It is found that thermal rectification changes sign when the external homogeneous magnetic field is varied. This reversal also occurs when the magnetic field becomes inhomogeneous. Moreover, we can tune the reversal of rectification by temperatures of the heat baths, the anisotropy and size of the spin chains.