Fluctuations are strong in mesoscopic systems and have to be taken into account for the description of transport. We show that they can even be used as a resource for the operation of a system as a device. We use the physics of single-electron tunneling to propose a bipartite device working as a thermal transistor. Charge and heat currents in a two-terminal conductor can be gated by thermal fluctuations from a third terminal to which it is capacitively coupled. The gate system can act as a switch that injects neither charge nor energy into the conductor, hence achieving huge amplification factors. Nonthermal properties of the tunneling electrons can be exploited to operate the device with no energy consumption.

• Received 23 December 2016
• Revised 8 May 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.241401