Transient behavior of heat transport in a thermal switch

Abstract

We study the time-dependent transport of heat in a nanoscale thermal switch. The switch consists of left and right leads that are initially uncoupled. During switch on the coupling between the leads is abruptly turned on. We use the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism and numerically solve the constructed Dyson equation to determine the nonperturbative heat current. At the transient regime we find that the current initially flows simultaneously into both of the leads and then afterwards oscillates between flowing into and out of the leads. At later times the oscillations decay away and the current settles into flowing from the hotter to the colder lead. We find the transient behavior to be influenced by the extra energy added during switch on. Such a transient behavior also exists even when there is no temperature difference between the leads. The current at the long-time limit approaches the steady-state value independently calculated from the Landauer formula. © 2010 The American Physical Society.