Caloric Effect Due to the Aharonov–Bohm Flux in an Antidot

Abstract

In this work, we report the caloric effect for an electronic system of the antidot type, modeled by combining a repulsive and attractive potential (parabolic confinement). In this system, we consider the action of a perpendicular external magnetic field and the possibility of having an Aharonov–Bohm flux (AB-flux) generated by a current passing through a solenoid placed inside the forbidden zone for the electron. The energy levels are obtained analytically, and the model is known as the Bogachek and Landman model. We propose to control the caloric response of the system by varying only the AB-flux, finding that, in the absence of an external magnetic field, the maximization of the effect always occurs at the same AB-flux intensity, independently of the temperature, while fixing the external magnetic field at a non-zero value breaks this symmetry and changes the point where the caloric phenomenon is maximized and is different depending on the temperature to which the process is carried. Our calculations indicate that using an effective electron mass of GaAs heterostructures and a trap intensity of the order of 2.896 meV, the modification of the AB-flux achieves a variation in temperature of the order of 1 K. Our analysis suggests that increasing the parabolic confinement twofold increases the effect threefold, while increasing the antidot size generates the reverse effect, i.e., a strong decrease in the caloric phenomenon under study. Due to the great diversity in technological applications that have antidots in electronics, the possibility of controlling their thermal response simply by varying the intensity of the internal current inside the solenoid (i.e., the intensity of AB-flux) can be a platform of interest for experimental studies.