Geometric Thermoelectric Pump: Energy Harvesting beyond Seebeck and Pyroelectric Effects

Abstract

Thermal-electric conversion is crucial for smart energy control and harvesting, such as thermal sensing and waste heat recovering. So far, people are aware of two main ways of direct thermal-electric conversion, Seebeck and pyroelectric effects, each with different working mechanisms, conditions and limitations. Here, we report the concept of “Geometric Thermoelectric Pump”, as the third way of thermal-electric conversion beyond Seebeck and pyroelectric effects. In contrast to Seebeck effect that requires spatial temperature difference, Geometric Thermoelectric Pump converts the time-dependent ambient temperature fluctuation into electricity. Moreover, Geometric Thermoelectric Pump does not require polar materials but applies to general conducting systems, thus is also distinct from pyroelectric effect. We demonstrate that Geometric Thermoelectric Pump results from the temperature-fluctuation-induced charge redistribution, which has a deep connection to the topological geometric phase in non-Hermitian dynamics, as a consequence of the fundamental nonequilibrium thermodynamic geometry. The findings advance our understanding of geometric phase induced multiple-physicscoupled pump effect and provide new means of thermal-electric energy harvesting.

Engineering Quantum Criticality for Quantum Dot Power Harvesting

“…We would like to make clear that, for energy harvesting, the DQD absorbs energy from the environment, such as phonons, photons, and magnons. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] It has been demonstrated that the coherent driven and dissipative nonlinear resonator yields the phase transition, where the competition between drive, nonlinearity and dissipation leads to a photon jump. [27][28][29][30][31][32][33] When the DQD system is in equilibrium, as shown in Fig.…”

Impact of Quantum Coherence on Inelastic Thermoelectric Devices: From Diode to Transistor

“…[1][2][3] Phonon-thermoelectric transport stands at the intersection of mesoscopic physics and opens quantum systems, exploring topics such as thermoelectric energy conversion in phonon-thermoelectric devices [4,5] and quantum dot (QD) circuit-quantum-electrodynamics. [6][7][8] Recently, various quantum phenomena based on QDs subjected to voltage bias and temperature gradients have been explored, revealing stressing the influence of quantum coherence on electron and phonon transport. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Coherence offers a promising viewpoint for investigating non-equilibrium open quantum systems, providing valuable insights for both theoretical foundations and practical applications.…”