Transmission of heat modes across a potential barrier

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 2251 - 7
• Main Authors: Rosenblatt, Amir, Lafont, Fabien, Levkivskyi, Ivan, Sabo, Ron, Gurman, Itamar, Banitt, Daniel, Heiblum, Moty, Umansky, Vladimir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.12.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/766/119/2794; 639/925/927/1007; Current carriers; Electric contacts; Electronic devices; Electronic equipment; Heat flow; Heat transfer; Humanities and Social Sciences; Measurement techniques; Mesoscopic physics; multidisciplinary; Point contact; Potential barriers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spatial distribution; Upstream
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02433-z

Controlling the transmission of electrical current using a quantum point contact constriction paved a way to a large variety of experiments in mesoscopic physics. The increasing interest in heat transfer in such systems fosters questions about possible manipulations of quantum heat modes that do not carry net charge (neutral modes). Here we study the transmission of upstream neutral modes through a quantum point contact in fractional hole-conjugate quantum Hall states. Employing two different measurement techniques, we were able to render the relative spatial distribution of these chargeless modes with their charged counterparts. In these states, which were found to harbor more than one downstream charge mode, the upstream neutral modes are found to flow with the inner charge mode—as theoretically predicted. These results unveil a universal upstream heat current structure and open the path for more complex engineering of heat flows and cooling mechanisms in quantum nano-electronic devices. Understanding the transfer of heat currents, specifically, neutral heat modes which do not carry net charge, is of great interest. Here, the authors study the transmission of upstream neutral modes through a quantum point contact in order to render the relative spatial distribution of these chargeless modes.