Local thermal probe in a model molecular chain: A dissipaton-based approach

Abstract

We study a system consisting of an infinite one-dimensional model molecular chain locally coupled to a probe. Starting from the Hamiltonian of the chain–probe composite and the corresponding spectral densities, we evaluate the heat current between the probe and the chain. Inspired by the perspective of quantum dissipative dynamics, we adopt a dissipaton-based quantum approach that is nonperturbative and non-Markovian. The dissipaton algebra yields a set of hierarchically coupled equations of motion for the c-number dissipaton moments, with iterative cross-tier connections when higher-order chain–probe interactions are included. Numerical results reveal the effects of temperature, probe frequency, on-site energy modification, and higher-order couplings on heat transport.