Ratcheting heat flux against a thermal bias

Merely rocking the temperature in one heat bath can direct a steady heat flux from cold to hot against a (time-averaged) non-zero thermal bias in stylized nonlinear lattice junctions that are sandwiched between two heat baths. Likewise, for an average zero-temperature difference between the two contacts a net, ratchet-like heat flux emerges. Computer simulations show that this very heat flux can be manipulated and even reversed by suitably tailoring the frequency (less than or similar to 100 MHz) of the alternating-temperature field. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2008