Thermoelectric effects in nanowire-based MOSFETs

Bosisio, Riccardo; Fleury, Geneviève; Gorini, Cosimo; Pichard, Jean‐Louis

doi:10.1080/23746149.2017.1290547

“…(125) that the system will have a significant Seebeck coefficient, S . This simple argument captures the basic idea of the coherent transport regime [245] that occurs at low temperatures, but at higher temperatures activated hopping start to dominate [246,247]. Then, the electrons flow from hot to cold with the aid of thermal activation by phonons, giving a more complicated (but no less interesting) thermoelectric effect [246,247].…”

Section: Thermoelectricity In Disordered Systems Near the Mobility Edgementioning

confidence: 55%

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

Benenti,

Casati,

Saito

et al. 2016

Preprint

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In recent years, the study of heat to work conversion has been re-invigorated by nanotechnology. Steady-state devices do this conversion without any macroscopic moving parts, through steady-state flows of microscopic particles such as electrons, photons, phonons, etc. This review aims to introduce some of the theories used to describe these steady-state flows in a variety of mesoscopic or nanoscale systems. These theories are introduced in the context of idealized machines which convert heat into electrical power (heat-engines) or convert electrical power into a heat flow (refrigerators). In this sense, the machines could be categorized as thermoelectrics, although this should be understood to include photovoltaics when the heat source is the sun. As quantum mechanics is important for most such machines, they fall into the field of quantum thermodynamics. In many cases, the machines we consider have few degrees of freedom, however the reservoirs of heat and work that they interact with are assumed to be macroscopic. This review discusses different theories which can take into account different aspects of mesoscopic and nanoscale physics, such as coherent quantum transport, magnetic-field induced effects (including topological ones such as the quantum Hall effect), and single electron charging effects. It discusses the efficiency of thermoelectric conversion, and the thermoelectric figure of merit. More specifically, the theories presented are (i) linear response theory with or without magnetic fields, (ii) Landauer scattering theory in the linear response regime and far from equilibrium, (iii) Green-Kubo formula for strongly interacting systems within the linear response regime, (iv) rate equation analysis for small quantum machines with or without interaction effects, (v) stochastic thermodynamic for fluctuating small systems. In all cases, we place particular emphasis on the fundamental questions about the bounds on ideal machines. Can magnetic-fields change the bounds on power or efficiency? What is the relationship between quantum theories of transport and the laws of thermodynamics? Does quantum mechanics place fundamental bounds on heat to work conversion which are absent in the thermodynamics of classical systems?

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“…This simple argument captures the basic idea of the coherent transport regime [245] that occurs at low temperatures, but at higher temperatures activated hopping start to dominate [246,247]. Then, the electrons flow from hot to cold with the aid of thermal activation by phonons, giving a more complicated (but no less interesting) thermoelectric effect [246,247]. This physics should be visible in disordered semiconductor nanowires, where a back-gate could be used to tune E loc , and thereby tune the Seebeck coefficient.…”

Section: Thermoelectricity In Disordered Systems Near the Mobility Edgementioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

Benenti

¹

,

Casati

²

,

Saito

³

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, the study of heat to work conversion has been re-invigorated by nanotechnology. Steady-state devices do this conversion without any macroscopic moving parts, through steady-state flows of microscopic particles such as electrons, photons, phonons, etc. This review aims to introduce some of the theories used to describe these steady-state flows in a variety of mesoscopic or nanoscale systems. These theories are introduced in the context of idealized machines which convert heat into electrical power (heat-engines) or convert electrical power into a heat flow (refrigerators). In this sense, the machines could be categorized as thermoelectrics, although this should be understood to include photovoltaics when the heat source is the sun. As quantum mechanics is important for most such machines, they fall into the field of quantum thermodynamics. In many cases, the machines we consider have few degrees of freedom, however the reservoirs of heat and work that they interact with are assumed to be macroscopic. This review discusses different theories which can take into account different aspects of mesoscopic and nanoscale physics, such as coherent quantum transport, magnetic-field induced effects (including topological ones such as the quantum Hall effect), and single electron charging effects. It discusses the efficiency of thermoelectric conversion, and the thermoelectric figure of merit. More specifically, the theories presented are (i) linear response theory with or without magnetic fields, (ii) Landauer scattering theory in the linear response regime and far from equilibrium, (iii) Green-Kubo formula for strongly interacting systems within the linear response regime, (iv) rate equation analysis for small quantum machines with or without interaction effects, (v) stochastic thermodynamic for fluctuating small systems. In all cases, we place particular emphasis on the fundamental questions about the bounds on ideal machines. Can magnetic-fields change the bounds on power or efficiency? What is the relationship between quantum theories of transport and the laws of thermodynamics? Does quantum mechanics place fundamental bounds on heat to work conversion which are absent in the thermodynamics of classical systems?

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“…This is changed by the introduction of a QD to the system. The QD drastically decreases the conductance and suppresses electronic heat transfer away from the charge degeneracy points [40,41], while the phononic contribution is expected to remain unaffected by the QD [7,39]. Because the heating power in our symmetric bottom-heater architecture only depends on the magnitude of dV H rather than the heater location or nanowire configuration, T is found to coincide for all tested QD and heater combinations.…”

Section: Quantum Dot Thermoelectricsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…A conventional two-terminal heat engine consists of a TE device coupled to two thermal reservoirs at different temperatures [7]. The figure of merit of such heat engines scales with the Seebeck coefficient S of the device and the ability to maintain a large temperature difference between reservoirs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of electrostatically defined bottom-heated InAs nanowire quantum dot systems

Dorsch

¹

,

Fahlvik

²

,

Burke

³

2021

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Conversion of temperature gradients to charge currents in quantum dot systems enables probing various concepts from highly efficient energy harvesting and fundamental thermodynamics to spectroscopic possibilities complementary to conventional bias device characterization. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept study of a device architecture where bottom-gates are capacitively coupled to an InAs nanowire and double function as local joule heaters. The device design combines the ability to heat locally at different locations on the device with the electrostatic definition of various quantum dot and barrier configurations. We demonstrate the versatility of this combined gating- and heating approach by studying, as a function of the heater location and bias, the Seebeck effect across the barrier-free nanowire, fit thermocurrents through quantum dots for thermometry and detect the phonon energy using a serial double quantum dot. The results indicate symmetric heating effects when the device is heated with different gates and we present detection schemes for the electronic and phononic heat transfer contribution across the nanowire. Based on this proof-of-principle work, we propose a variety of future experiments.

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Thermoelectric effects in nanowire-based MOSFETs

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

Characterization of electrostatically defined bottom-heated InAs nanowire quantum dot systems

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