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Main Authors: Inui, Sosuke, Stafford, Charles A., Bergfield, Justin P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2017
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05867
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author Inui, Sosuke
Stafford, Charles A.
Bergfield, Justin P.
author_facet Inui, Sosuke
Stafford, Charles A.
Bergfield, Justin P.
contents The microscopic origins of Fourier's venerable law of thermal transport in quantum electron systems has remained somewhat of a mystery, given that previous derivations were forced to invoke intrinsic scattering rates far exceeding those occurring in real systems. We propose an alternative hypothesis, namely, that Fourier's law emerges naturally if many quantum states participate in the transport of heat across the system. We test this hypothesis systematically in a graphene flake junction, and show that the temperature distribution becomes nearly classical when the broadening of the individual quantum states of the flake exceeds their energetic separation. We develop a thermal resistor network model to investigate the scaling of the sample and contact thermal resistances, and show that the latter is consistent with classical thermal transport theory in the limit of large level broadening.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1712_05867
institution arXiv
publishDate 2017
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Emergence of Fourier's law of heat transport in quantum electron systems
Inui, Sosuke
Stafford, Charles A.
Bergfield, Justin P.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
The microscopic origins of Fourier's venerable law of thermal transport in quantum electron systems has remained somewhat of a mystery, given that previous derivations were forced to invoke intrinsic scattering rates far exceeding those occurring in real systems. We propose an alternative hypothesis, namely, that Fourier's law emerges naturally if many quantum states participate in the transport of heat across the system. We test this hypothesis systematically in a graphene flake junction, and show that the temperature distribution becomes nearly classical when the broadening of the individual quantum states of the flake exceeds their energetic separation. We develop a thermal resistor network model to investigate the scaling of the sample and contact thermal resistances, and show that the latter is consistent with classical thermal transport theory in the limit of large level broadening.
title Emergence of Fourier's law of heat transport in quantum electron systems
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05867