Chien Chih-Chun, Velizhanin Kirill A, Dubi Yonatan, Ilic B Robert, Zwolak Michael
School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA.
Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
Phys Rev B. 2018;97. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.125425.
Topological effects typically discussed in the context of quantum physics are emerging as one of the central paradigms of physics. Here, we demonstrate the role of topology in energy transport through dimerized micro- and nano-mechanical lattices in the classical regime, i.e., essentially "masses and springs". We show that the thermal conductance factorizes into topological and nontopological components. The former takes on three discrete values and arises due to the appearance of edge modes that prevent good contact between the heat reservoirs and the bulk, giving a length-independent reduction of the conductance. In essence, energy input at the boundary mostly stays there, an effect robust against disorder and nonlinearity. These results bridge two seemingly disconnected disciplines of physics, namely topology and thermal transport, and suggest ways to engineer thermal contacts, opening a direction to explore the ramifications of topological properties on nanoscale technology.
通常在量子物理背景下讨论的拓扑效应正成为物理学的核心范式之一。在此，我们展示了拓扑在经典 regime 中通过二聚化的微纳机械晶格进行能量传输时所起的作用，即本质上是“质量和弹簧”。我们表明，热导率可分解为拓扑和非拓扑分量。前者具有三个离散值，并且是由于边缘模式的出现而产生的，这些边缘模式阻止了热库与主体之间的良好接触，从而导致与长度无关的电导率降低。本质上，边界处的能量输入大多停留在那里，这种效应对于无序和非线性具有鲁棒性。这些结果架起了物理学中两个看似不相关的学科——拓扑学和热传输之间的桥梁，并提出了设计热接触的方法，为探索拓扑性质在纳米技术中的影响开辟了一个方向。
