Electronic heat transport across a molecular wire: Power spectrum of heat fluctuations

Abstract

With this study we analyze the fluctuations of an electronic only heat current across a molecular wire. The wire is composed of a single energy level which connects to two leads which are held at different temperatures. By use of the Green function method we derive the finite frequency power spectral density (PSD) of the emerging heat current fluctuations. This result assumes a form quite distinct from the power spectral density of the accompanying electric current noise. The complex expression simplifies considerably in the limit of zero frequency, yielding the heat noise intensity. The heat noise intensity still depends on the frequency in the zero-temperature limit, assuming different asymptotic behaviors in the low- and high-frequency regimes. These findings evidence that heat transport across molecular junctions can exhibit a rich structure beyond the common behavior which emerges in the linear response limit.