A Nanoscale Standard for the Seebeck Coefficient

Abstract

The Seebeck coefficient, a key parameter describing a material's thermoelectric performance, is generally difficult to measure, and no intrinsic calibration standard exists. Quantum dots and single electron tunneling devices with sharp transmission resonances spaced by many kT have a material-independent Seebeck coefficient that depends only on the electronic charge and the average device temperature T. Here we propose the use of a quantum dot to create an intrinsic, nanoscale standard for the Seebeck coefficient and discuss its implementation.

Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots

“…[19]. Two-terminal geometries using mesoscopic conductors have been considered, notably using quantum dots [5,20,21,7,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43]. In the two-terminal geometry, both temperature and voltage bias are applied to the sample and the thermoelectric response is investigated.…”

Implementation of transmission functions for an optimized three-terminal quantum dot heat engine

“…Various layouts for such heat engines have been discussed, most of them based on quantum dots. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In particular, for the heat engine proposed in Ref. 4 two quantum dots with a single energy-level are used as energy filters in order to generate a directed charge current.…”

Realization of solid-state nanothermometer using Ge quantum-dot single-hole transistor in few-hole regime

“…As a consequence, a SET is of extremely high charge precision, opening up access to wide-ranging applications for advanced electronic circuits and intriguing precision metrologies. 16,17 Many attempts have been made for the realization of high-performance QD-SETs. [18][19][20][21] Among the possible material choices for QD-SETs, Ge is particularly attractive because of its Bohr radius (24.9 nm) larger than their counterparts of Si (5 nm) and metals (<1 nm), suggesting a relative ease of sustaining stable CB operation at given QD size and temperature.…”

“…Interestingly, the extracted values of DV 1/2 /DT ¼ 0.3À0.445 mV/K for n ¼ 0À5q within the Ge QD are close to the Seebeck coefficient, 0.4 mV/K, of bulk Ge film at T ¼ 300 K. 27 It has been reported that QDs with well-spaced and sharp transmission resonance have a strong, materialindependent thermoelectric (Seebeck coefficient) signal that depends only on the electronic charge and are thus candidates for intrinsic, nanoscale standards for the Seebeck coefficient. 17 Our Ge-QD SET in the few-hole regime also provides a good test platform for thermoelectrical transport and thermopower measurements, which will be discussed elsewhere. Another intriguing finding is that in addition to the thermometric parameter of V 1/2 for the G D /G T valley, the depth, DG D /G T , of the G D /G T valley is inversely proportional to temperature (Fig.…”