Heat-based circuits using quantum rectification

Abstract: With increased power consumption of modern computer components, heat-based circuitry has become ever more relevant due to a lower power expense to process logic bits of information. In heat-based circuits, computations are performed by driving heat currents through a circuit using a temperature difference. Utilizing harmonic oscillators and three-level quantum rectifiers as base components, we study three different heat-based circuits: a series configuration of diodes, a parallel configuration of diodes, and a diode bridge rectifier. We demonstrate the required functionality of each circuit for use as heat-based analogues of standard electronic components. Furthermore, the diode bridge rectifier is found to give consistent sign of the output bias independent of the input bias thus rectifying the input. Our results prove the theoretical feasibility of combining heat current components into heat-based circuits. The three circuits should be realizable using several of the current quantum technology platforms.