Thermal rectification in nonlinear quantum circuits

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of radiative heat transport in nonlinear solid-state quantum circuits. We give a detailed account of heat rectification effects, i.e., the asymmetry of heat current with respect to a reversal of the thermal gradient, in a system consisting of two reservoirs at finite temperatures coupled through a nonlinear resonator. We suggest an experimentally feasible superconducting circuit employing the Josephson nonlinearity to realize a controllable low-temperature heat rectifier with a maximal asymmetry of the order of 10%. We also discover a parameter regime where the rectification changes sign as a function of temperature.