A quantum-dot refrigerator

Edwards, Hal; Niu, Qian; Lozanne, Alex de

doi:10.1063/1.110672

Cited by 143 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

111

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, the availability of several techniques for growing high-purity crystals ͑e.g., molecular-beam epitaxy͒ gives us the capacity to tailor semiconductor electronic properties and, at the same time, enables us to fabricate structures characterized by coherent transport in reduced dimensionality ͑Capasso, 1990͒. The exploitation of low-dimensional electron systems as active elements of electronic coolers was predicted as the next possible breakthrough in this research field ͑Edwards et al, 1993͑Edwards et al, , 1995Dresselhaus, 1993a, 1993b;Hicks et al, 1993Hicks et al, , 1996Koga et al, 1998Koga et al, , 1999. Moreover, the fabrication of structures in which charge carriers experience arbitrarily chosen effective potentials is a further advantage of modern engineered heterostructures ͑Yu and Cardona, 2001͒.…”

Section: A Structure Typologies and Materials Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

et al. 2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This review presents an overview of the thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. The discussion is based on the concept of electron energy distribution, and, in particular, on controlling and probing it. The temperature of an electron gas is determined by this distribution: refrigeration is equivalent to narrowing it, and thermometry is probing its convolution with a function characterizing the measuring device. Temperature exists, strictly speaking, only in quasiequilibrium in which the distribution follows the Fermi-Dirac form. Interesting nonequilibrium deviations can occur due to slow relaxation rates of the electrons, e.g., among themselves or with lattice phonons. Observation and applications of nonequilibrium phenomena are also discussed. The focus in this paper is at low temperatures, primarily below 4 K, where physical phenomena on mesoscopic scales and hybrid combinations of various types of materials, e.g., superconductors, normal metals, insulators, and doped semiconductors, open up a rich variety of device concepts. This review starts with an introduction to theoretical concepts and experimental results on thermal properties of mesoscopic structures. Then thermometry and refrigeration are examined with an emphasis on experiments. An immediate application of solid-state refrigeration and thermometry is in ultrasensitive radiation detection, which is discussed in depth. This review concludes with a summary of pertinent fabrication methods of presented devices.

show abstract

Section: A Structure Typologies and Materials Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

et al. 2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A paradigmatic realization of such single channel transport is given by resonant tunneling through quantum dots that we analyze below [46]. Similar setups have been considered in their dual role as an electronic refrigerator [124,125] and successfully been used to cool a micrometer-sized island from 280 mK to 190 mK [126].…”

Section: Resonant-tunneling Quantum Dotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We review recent theoretical work on thermoelectric energy harvesting in multi-terminal quantum-dot setups. We first discuss several examples of nanoscale heat engines based on Coulomb-coupled conductors. In particular, we focus on quantum dots in the Coulomb-blockade regime, chaotic cavities and resonant tunneling through quantum dots and wells. We then turn towards quantum-dot heat engines that are driven by bosonic degrees of freedom such as phonons, magnons and microwave photons. These systems provide interesting connections to spin caloritronics and circuit quantum electrodynamics.

show abstract

“…Using the values for I and V reported in [7], we find that T env − T elec ∼ 10 2 K. Note that the temperature gradient supported by a good thermal insulator, such as an organic film, is much larger than the one expected in a system where heat can be dissipated through metallic regions ( κ ∼ 1 W / ( m K )). A different way to manipulate the electronic distribution in a mesoscopic device has been discussed in [9]. Our analysis differs from that in [9] because we will study systems in which the electronic distribution is not in thermal equilibrium.…”

mentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Our analysis differs from that in [9] because we will study systems in which the electronic distribution is not in thermal equilibrium.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Nonequilibrium electronic distribution in single-electron devices

Garcı́a

Guinea

1998

Phys. Rev. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The electronic distribution in devices with sufficiently small dimensions may not be in thermal equilibrium with their surroundings. Systems where the occupancies of electronic states are solely determined by tunneling processes are analyzed. It is shown that the effective temperature of the device may be higher, or lower, than that of its environment, depending on the applied voltage and the energy dependence of the tunneling rates. The I-V characteristics become asymmetric. Comparison with recent experiments is made. 75.10.Jm, 75.10.Lp, 75.30.Ds. In small devices, the coupling between electrons and the lattice is suppressed. At sufficiently low temperatures, only long wavelength accoustical phonons are excited. If the electrons are localized in a region much smaller than the wavelength of the phonons, the interaction between the electrons and the phonons is significantly reduced [1]. As a result, the electron temperature may be different from that of the surrounding medium.Usually, the electron temperature in small devices tend to be higher than that of the environment, because of dissipation at the device [1] (see also [2]), via shake-up processes. This effect can explain a number of experiments [3,4].In the following, we analyze the electronic distribution in a small device, when it is controlled by the electronic exchange with the external leads. The general equations which describe the single level occupancies were first discussed in [6,5]. These authors considered mostly the inluence of a non negligible single level spacing in the I-V characteristics of semiconductor nanostructures. In these systems, the effects of the energy dependence of the transmission through the barrier, or of the density of states in the external leads is not important. We will generalize the previous work to situations where energy dependent tunneling rates also contribute to modify the electronic distribution. As it will be seen below, an energy dependent tunneling rate, T (ǫ), can modify significantly the electronic distribution in the central electrode of a single electron device, if T ′ (ǫ)/T (ǫ) is comparable to the inverse of the temperature at which the device is operated. Such a situation can be realized when an electrode has a strongly dependent density of states, or if the tunneling process takes place close to the top of a barrier. The first case is relevant to the experiments reported in [7], where one of the electrodes is made of graphite, and to the experiments presented in [8], where the electrodes are made of superconducting Al, and tunneling processes take place near the gap edges. Asymmetric I-V characteristics have also been reported in [10]. Some features of these experiments are also consistent with the work reported here.A particularly interesting case is presented in [7]. The observed Coulomb staircase can only be fitted by the orthodox theory [11][12][13], if an effective temperature of ∼ 170K is assumed, although the experiment is performed at room temperature. A large temperature difference between the...

show abstract

A quantum-dot refrigerator

Cited by 143 publications

References 8 publications

Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

Opportunities for mesoscopics in thermometry and refrigeration: Physics and applications

Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots

Nonequilibrium electronic distribution in single-electron devices

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About