With the rapidly increasing integration density and power density in nanoscale electronic devices, the thermal management concerning heat generation and energy harvesting becomes quite crucial. Since phonon is the major heat carrier in semiconductors, thermal transport due to phonons in mesoscopic systems has attracted much attention. In quantum transport studies, the nonequilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) method is a versatile and powerful tool that has been developed for several decades. In this review, we will discuss theoretical investigations of thermal transport using the NEGF approach from two aspects. For the aspect of phonon transport, the phonon NEGF method is briefly introduced and its applications on thermal transport in mesoscopic systems including one-dimensional atomic chains, multi-terminal systems, and transient phonon transport are discussed. For the aspect of thermoelectric transport, the caloritronic effects in which the charge, spin, and valley degrees of freedom are manipulated by the temperature gradient are discussed. The time-dependent thermoelectric behavior is also presented in the transient regime within the partitioned scheme based on the NEGF method.

随着纳米级电子设备中集成密度和功率密度的迅速提高，与生热和能量收集有关的热管理变得至关重要。由于声子是半导体中的主要载热体，介观系统中声子引起的热传输引起了人们的广泛关注。在量子传输研究中，非平衡格林函数（NEGF）方法是一种通用且功能强大的工具，已经开发了数十年。在这篇综述中，我们将从两个方面讨论使用NEGF方法进行热传输的理论研究。在声子传输方面，简要介绍了声子NEGF方法及其在介观系统（包括一维原子链，多末端系统，和瞬态声子传输进行了讨论。对于热电传输方面，讨论了通过温度梯度控制电荷，自旋和谷自由度的量热效应。在基于NEGF方法的分区方案中的瞬态状态下，还显示了随时间变化的热电行为。