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arXiv:2607.06716

Mesoscopic routers and single-pole double-throw switches for electronic heat

José Balduque, Rafael Sánchez

cond-mat.mes-hallquant-phSubmitted Jul 7, 2026• Announced Jul 9, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The unavoidable dissipation of heat in electronic nanostructures is a crucial problem, specially when their operation requires low temperatures. It demands finding devices able to control and redirect the excess heat, ideally without perturbing the electrostatic environment. We propose three-terminal junctions working either as thermal routers or as thermal single-pole double-throw switches controlled by a single external knob. Two models are discussed based on resonant tunneling energy filters and different couplings to the heat source: (i) Phase-coherent contact via a scanning tip modulates the relative amount of the two output currents via position-dependent quantum interference; (ii) Coupling via a gate voltage tunable filter selectively switches one of the currents in the presence of dephasing. In the later case, we find that the heat flow using ideal filtering is bounded by fourth the open conductor current.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. B 114, 235412 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/vfvf-d48v
Comments
13 pages, 15 figures

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The unavoidable dissipation of heat in electronic nanostructures is a crucial problem, specially when their operation requires low temperatures. It demands finding devices able to control and redirect the excess heat, ideally without perturbing the electrostatic environment. We propose three-terminal junctions working either as thermal routers or as thermal single-pole double-throw switches controlled by a single external knob. Two models are discussed based on resonant tunneling energy filters and different couplings to the heat source: (i) Phase-coherent contact via a scanning tip modulates the relative amount of the two output currents via position-dependent quantum interference; (ii) Coupling via a gate voltage tunable filter selectively switches one of the currents in the presence of dephasing. In the later case, we find that the heat flow using ideal filtering is bounded by fourth the open conductor current.
We propose to generate heat pulses in mesoscopic conductors using light fields. In contrast to single-electron excitations such as levitons, which are created by accurate voltage drives, our approach relies on modulating the temperature of an electronic reservoir. To this end, we show that the interactions with a light field can induce a controllable time-dependent temperature in an electrode. The temperature modulations generate charge-neutral heat pulses that can be emitted into a mesoscopic conductor and detected in the outputs. We illustrate our approach by evaluating the time-dependent currents and their fluctuations using a tight-binding model of two electronic reservoirs connected by a quantum point contact. Our work establishes a route towards on-demand caloritronics, where energy rather than charge carries quantum information, and it paves the way for probing time-resolved heat transport and quantum coherence in thermally driven conductors.
A quantum thermal transistor is designed by the strong coupling between one qubit and one qutrit which are in contact with three heat baths with different temperatures. The thermal behavior is analyzed based on the master equation by both the numerical and the approximately analytic methods. It is shown that the thermal transistor, as a three-terminal device, allows a weak modulation heat current (at the modulation terminal) to switch on and off and effectively modulate the heat current between the other two terminals. In particular, the weak modulation heat current can induce the strong heat current between the other two terminals with the multiple-region amplification of heat current. Furthermore, the heat currents are quite robust to the temperature (current) fluctuation at the lower-temperature terminal within a certain range of temperature, and so it can behave as a heat current stabilizer.
Phase-tunable hybrid devices, built upon nanostructures combining normal metal and superconductors, have been the subject of intense studies due to their numerous combinations of different charge and heat transport configurations. They exhibit solid applications in quantum metrology and coherent caloritronics. Here we propose and realize a new kind of hybrid device with potential application in single charge manipulation and quantized current generation. We show that by tuning superconductivity on two proximized nanowires, coupled via a Coulombic normal-metal island, we are able to control its charge state configuration. This device supports a one-control-parameter cycle being actuated by the sole magnetic flux. In a voltage biased regime, the phase-tunable superconducting gaps can act as energy barriers for charge quanta leading to an additional degree of freedom in single electronics. The resulting configuration is fully electrostatic and the current across the device is governed by the quasiparticle populations in the source and drain leads. Notably, the proposed device can be realized using standard nanotechniques opening the possibility to a straightforward coupling with the nowadays well developed superconducting electronics.
Heat flow management at the nanoscale is of great importance for emergent quantum technologies. For instance, a thermal sink that can be activated on-demand is a highly desirable tool that may accommodate the need to evacuate excess heat at chosen times, e.g., to maintain cryogenic temperatures or reset a quantum system to ground, and the possibility of controlled unitary evolution otherwise. Here we propose a design of such heat switch based on a single coherently driven qubit. We show that the heat flow provided by a hot source to the qubit can be switched on and off by varying external parameters, the frequency and the intensity of the driving. The complete suppression of the heat flow is a quantum effect occurring for specific driving parameters that we express and we analyze the role of the coherences in the free-qubit energy eigenbasis. We finally study the feasibility of this quantum heat switch in a circuit QED setup involving a charge qubit coupled to thermal resistances. We demonstrate robustness to experimental imperfections such as additional decoherence, paving the road towards experimental verification of this effect.
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Logical devices based on electrical currents are ubiquitous in modern society. However, digital logic does have some drawbacks, such as a relatively high power consumption. It is, therefore, of great interest to seek alternative means to build logical circuits that can either work as stand-alone devices or in conjunction with more traditional electronic circuits. One direction that holds great promise is the use of heat currents for logical components. In the present paper, we discuss a recent abstract proposal for a quantum thermal transistor and provide a concrete design of such a device using superconducting circuits. Using a circuit quantum electrodynamics Jaynes-Cummings model, we propose a three-terminal device that allows heat transfer from source to drain, depending on the temperature of a bath coupled at the gate modulator and show that it provides similar properties to a conventional semiconductor transistor.