Nanowire-based thermoelectric ratchet in the hopping regime

Abstract

We study a thermoelectric ratchet consisting of an array of disordered nanowires arranged in parallel on top of an insulating substrate and contacted asymmetrically to two electrodes. Transport is investigated in the Mott hopping regime, when localized electrons can propagate through the nanowires via thermally assisted hops. When the electronic temperature in the nanowires is different from the phononic one in the substrate, we show that a finite electrical current is generated even in the absence of driving forces between the electrodes. We discuss the device performance both as an energy harvester, when an excess heat from the substrate is converted into useful power, and as a refrigerator, when an external power is supplied to cool down the substrate.

Josephson Thermal Memory

“…L is the sum of both a geometric and a kinetic contribution, L G and L Kring , respectively. Moreover, β depends on the temperatures through the kinetic inductance and the critical current [33][34][35]. Specifically,…”

Thermoelectric effects in nanowire-based MOSFETs

“…In Ref. [29], we have discussed several possibilities offered by this setup when δT S = 0, in terms of energy harvesting and cooling. Let us focus on the case where the NW is deposited on a hotter substrate without bias and temperature difference between the source and the drain (δµ = δT = 0 while δT S > 0).…”

“…Other ways of breaking inversion symmetry which give rise to even larger currents I N L are discussed in Ref. [29].…”

Microwave quantum refrigeration based on the Josephson effect

“…is the electron-phonon coupling constant of Al 1 , and V = 10 −17 m 3 is the S 1 electrode volume. Furthermore, additional heating can come through the radiative electron-photon heat exchange occurring between the two superconductors, P γ (T 1 , T 2 , Φ) 44 . The latter can be written as…”

“…where n(ε, T ) = [exp(ε/k B T ) − 1] −1 is the Bose-Einstein photons distribution at temperature T , and T(ω, T 1 , T 2 , Φ) is the effective SQUID photonic transmission coefficient 44 . The final steady-state thermal balance equation which must solved in order to obtain T 1 is therefore P av (T 1 , T 2 ) + P qp−ph (T 1 , T bath ) + P av γ (T 1 , T 2 ) = 0 1 .…”