Neuromorphic heat transport effects in a molecular junction

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Hauptverfasser: Chen, Renai, Craven, Galen T.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Chen, Renai
Craven, Galen T.
author_facet Chen, Renai
Craven, Galen T.
contents Understanding energy transport at the nanoscale is an open and fundamental challenge in the molecular sciences with direct implications for the design of new electronics, computing devices, and materials. While nanoscale energy transport under steady-state conditions has been studied extensively, there is much less known about energy transport under time-dependent driving forces, particularly in the far-from-equilibrium regime. In this work, we use nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and stochastic thermodynamics to investigate energy transport in a well-studied nanoscale system, a molecular junction, subjected to a time-periodic temperature gradient. The primary observation is that molecular junctions can exhibit heat transport hysteresis, a phenomenon in which the heat flux through a system depends not only on the instantaneous value of a time-dependent temperature bias but also on the temporal history of that bias. The presented findings illustrate that molecular junctions can exhibit the specific memory effect, heat transport hysteresis, that is essential for the design of thermal neuromorphic computers. This work elucidates a potential pathway toward the realization of such devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_11870
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Neuromorphic heat transport effects in a molecular junction
Chen, Renai
Craven, Galen T.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Chemical Physics
Understanding energy transport at the nanoscale is an open and fundamental challenge in the molecular sciences with direct implications for the design of new electronics, computing devices, and materials. While nanoscale energy transport under steady-state conditions has been studied extensively, there is much less known about energy transport under time-dependent driving forces, particularly in the far-from-equilibrium regime. In this work, we use nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and stochastic thermodynamics to investigate energy transport in a well-studied nanoscale system, a molecular junction, subjected to a time-periodic temperature gradient. The primary observation is that molecular junctions can exhibit heat transport hysteresis, a phenomenon in which the heat flux through a system depends not only on the instantaneous value of a time-dependent temperature bias but also on the temporal history of that bias. The presented findings illustrate that molecular junctions can exhibit the specific memory effect, heat transport hysteresis, that is essential for the design of thermal neuromorphic computers. This work elucidates a potential pathway toward the realization of such devices.
title Neuromorphic heat transport effects in a molecular junction
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11870