Quantum heat transfer: A Born Oppenheimer method

Abstract

We develop a Born-Oppenheimer type formalism for the description of quantum thermal transport along hybrid nanoscale objects. Our formalism is suitable for treating heat transfer in the off-resonant regime, where e.g., the relevant vibrational modes of the interlocated molecule are high relative to typical bath frequencies, and at low temperatures when tunneling effects dominate. A general expression for the thermal energy current is accomplished, in the form of a generalized Landauer formula. In the harmonic limit this expression reduces to the standard Landauer result for heat transfer, while in the presence of nonlinearities multiphonon tunneling effects are realized.