Rectification of thermal fluctuations in mesoscopic conductors is the key idea behind recent attempts to build nanoscale thermoelectric energy harvesters to convert heat into useful electric power. So far, most concepts have made use of the Seebeck effect in a two-terminal geometry, where heat and charge are both carried by the same particles. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the working principle of a new kind of energy harvester, proposed recently, using two capacitively coupled quantum dots. We show that, due to the novel three-terminal design of our device, which spatially separates the heat reservoir from the conductor circuit, the directions of charge and heat flow become decoupled. This enables us to manipulate the direction of the generated charge current by means of external gate voltages while leaving the direction of heat flow unaffected. Our results pave the way for a new generation of multi-terminal nanoscale heat engines.

The cooling effect in an InAs quantum dot subjected to THz irradiation and an external magnetic field X. AbstractWe theoretically investigate the propagation of heat currents in a three-terminal quantum dot engine. Electron-electron interactions introduce state-dependent processes which can be resolved by energydependent tunneling rates. We identify the relevant transitions which define the operation of the system as a thermal transistor or a thermal diode. In the former case, thermal-induced charge fluctuations in the gate dot modify the thermal currents in the conductor with suppressed heat injection, resulting in huge amplification factors and the possible gating with arbitrarily low energy cost. In the latter case, enhanced correlations of the state-selective tunneling transitions redistribute heat flows giving high rectification coefficients and the unexpected cooling of one conductor terminal by heating the other one. We propose quantum dot arrays as a possible way to achieve the extreme tunneling asymmetries required for the different operations.

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.

Abstract. We have experimentally studied the diffusion thermopower of a serial double quantum dot, defined electrostatically in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. We present the thermopower stability diagram for a temperature difference T = (20 ± 10) mK across the device and find a maximum thermovoltage signal of several µV in the vicinity of the triple points. Along a constant energy axis in this regime, the data show a characteristic pattern which is in agreement with Mott's relation and can be well understood within a model of sequential transport.

We have observed thermal gating, i.e. electrostatic gating induced by hot electrons. The effect occurs in a device consisting of two capacitively coupled quantum dots. The double dot system is coupled to a hot electron reservoir on one side (QD1), while the conductance of the second dot (QD2) is monitored. When a bias across QD2 is applied we observe a current which is strongly dependent on the temperature of the heat reservoir. This current can be either enhanced or suppressed, depending on the relative energetic alignment of the QD levels. Thus, the system can be used to control a charge current by hot electrons.