Three-terminal quantum-dot refrigerators

Spin dependent thermoelectric transport in a multiterminal quantum dot hybrid including a superconductor and ferromagnets

We investigate the thermoelectric response of a hybrid system consisting of two ferromagnetic electrodes and one superconducting lead coupled to a single-level quantum dot with finite Coulomb repulsion. Using the non-equilibrium Green's function technique within the Hubbard-I approximation, local and non-local thermoelectric coefficients, along with their spin counterparts, such as electrical and thermal conductance, and the Seebeck coefficient are calculated up to linear order with respect to generalized forces. Here, we present a derivation of spin-dependent thermoelectric coefficients for a three-terminal system, extending the existing theory which allowed to describe only cases independent of spin-bias voltage, i.e. when spin accumulation is irrelevant. In the considered system, four competing processes- single particle tunneling, quasiparticle tunneling, direct and crossed Andreev reflection make the system highly adaptable for tuning charge and heat currents. A full analysis of their impact on thermoelectric effects is provided. Moreover, the output power and efficiency of the system operating as a heat engine are evaluated. The extensive goal of this work is to demonstrate how the presence of an additional terminal modifies the hybrid QD-based device's performance and under which conditions non-local thermoelectric effects become significant.

Thermoelectric Rectification and Amplification in Interacting Quantum-Dot Circuit-Quantum-Electrodynamics Systems

Thermoelectric rectification and amplification were investigated in an interacting quantum-dot circuit-quantum-electrodynamics system. By applying the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function approach, we studied the elastic (energy-conserving) and inelastic (energy-nonconserving) transport through a cavity-coupled quantum dot under the voltage biases in a wide spectrum of electron-electron and electron-photon interactions. While significant charge and Peltier rectification effects were found for strong light-matter interactions, the dependence on electron-electron interaction could be nonmonotonic and dramatic. Electron-electron interaction-enhanced transport was found under certain resonance conditions. These nontrivial interaction effects were found in both linear and nonlinear transport regimes, which manifested in charge and thermal currents, rectification effects, and the linear thermal transistor effect.

Non-local triple quantum dot thermometer based on Coulomb-coupled systems

Recent proposals towards non-local thermoelectric voltage-based thermometry, in the conventional dual quantum dot set-up, demand an asymmetric step-like system-to-reservoir coupling around the ground states for optimal operation (Physica E, 114, 113635, 2019). In addition to such demand for unrealistic coupling, the sensitivity in such a strategy also depends on the average measurement terminal temperature, which may result in erroneous temperature assessment. In this paper, we propose non-local current based thermometry in the dual dot set-up as a practical alternative and demonstrate that in the regime of high bias, the sensitivity remains robust against fluctuations of the measurement terminal temperature. Proceeding further, we propose a non-local triple quantum dot thermometer, that provides an enhanced sensitivity while bypassing the demand for unrealistic step-like system-to-reservoir coupling and being robust against fabrication induced variability in Coulomb coupling. In addition, we show that the heat extracted from (to) the target reservoir, in the triple dot design, can also be suppressed drastically by appropriate fabrication strategy, to prevent thermometry induced drift in reservoir temperature. The proposed triple dot setup thus offers a multitude of benefits and could potentially pave the path towards the practical realization and deployment of high-performance non-local “sub-Kelvin range” thermometers.

Inverse currents in Coulomb-coupled quantum dots

The inverse current, i.e., one induced current is opposite to both applied forces, has recently been found in a classical one-dimensional interacting Hamiltonian system [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 110607 (2020)10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.110607]. In this paper, we show that the inverse current also exists in quantum system. Based on Coulomb-coupled quantum dots system, we find that the inverse current will appear when Coulomb interaction increases. This does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, since entropy reduction caused by the inverse current is compensated by entropy increase caused by the forward current, which ensures that total entropy increase of the system is always greater than zero.

Parametric study for optimal performance of Coulomb-coupled quantum dots

We study the optimal output power and efficiency of the three-terminal quantum heat engine with Coulomb-coupled quantum-dots (CCQD). It has been well known that in the weak coupling regime, two kinds of dominant transport mechanisms are sequential tunneling and cotunneling processes in CCQD. What process becomes dominant, which can be controlled by several parameters such as temperature difference, bias voltage, Coulomb interaction and tunneling parameters, is one of the key problems to determine the performance of the heat engine. We show the parametric dependence of the output power and coefficient and find the optimal performance of this CCQD heat engine through genetic algorithm.

Realistic nonlocal refrigeration engine based on Coulomb-coupled systems

We investigate, in detail, a triple quantum dot system that exploits Coulomb coupling to achieve nonlocal refrigeration. The system under investigation is a derivative of the nonlocal thermodynamic engine, originally proposed by Sánchez and Büttiker [Phys. Rev. B 83, 085428 (2011)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.83.085428], that employs quadruple quantum dots to attain efficient nonlocal heat harvesting. Investigating the cooling performance and operating regime using the quantum master equation approach, we point out some crucial aspects of the refrigeration engine. In particular, we demonstrate that the maximum cooling power for the setup is limited to about 70% of the optimal design. Proceeding further, we point out that to achieve a target reservoir temperature lower than the average temperature of the current path, the applied voltage must be greater than a given threshold voltage V_{TH} that increases with the decrease in the target reservoir temperature. In addition, we demonstrate that the maximum cooling power, as well as the coefficient of performance, deteriorates as one approaches a lower target reservoir temperature. The triple quantum dot system, investigated in this paper, combines fabrication simplicity along with descent cooling power and may pave the way towards the practical realization of efficient nonlocal cryogenic refrigeration systems.

Heat-flow allocator based on a triple quantum dot

We theoretically propose a simple setup based on a three-terminal triple quantum dot in the Coulomb blockade regime as a heat-flow allocator to spatially separate heat flow along two different channels at arbitrary proportion. We show that a constant output heat-flow ratio can be obtained in a wide range of system parameters, and any ratio of the output heat flow, whether it is an integer ratio or a fractional ratio, can be obtained by directly adjusting the ratio of the energy-dependent tunneling rate.

Three-terminal refrigerator based on resonant-tunneling quantum wells

A three-terminal refrigerator based on resonant-tunneling quantum wells is proposed. With the help of the Landauer formula, the expressions for the cooling rate and the coefficient of performance (COP) are derived. The working regions of the refrigerator are determined and the three-dimensional projection graphs of the cooling rate and the COP varying with the positions of the two energy levels are plotted. Moreover, the influence of the bias voltage, the asymmetric factor, and the temperature difference on the optimal performance parameters is analyzed in detail. Finally, the performance characteristics of the refrigerator in the case of negative temperature difference are discussed.

Helical thermoelectrics and refrigeration

The thermoelectric properties of a three-terminal quantum spin Hall (QSH) sample are examined. The inherent helicity of the QSH sample helps to generate a large charge power efficiently. Along with charge the system can be designed to work as a highly efficient spin heat engine too. The advantage of a helical over a chiral sample is that, while a multiterminal quantum Hall sample can only work as a quantum heat engine due to broken time reversal (TR) symmetry, a multiterminal QSH system can work effectively as both a charge or spin heat engine and as a charge or spin refrigerator as the TR symmetry is preserved.

Efficiency at maximum power of thermochemical engines with near-independent particles

Two-reservoir thermochemical engines are established by using near-independent particles (including Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein particles) as the working substance. Particle and heat fluxes can be formed based on the temperature and chemical potential gradients between two different reservoirs. A rectangular-type energy filter with width Γ is introduced for each engine to weaken the coupling between the particle and heat fluxes. The efficiency at maximum power of each particle system decreases monotonously from an upper bound η(+) to a lower bound η(-) when Γ increases from 0 to ∞. It is found that the η(+) values for all three systems are bounded by η(C)/2 ≤ η(+) ≤ η(C)/(2-η(C)) due to strong coupling, where η(C) is the Carnot efficiency. For the Bose-Einstein system, it is found that the upper bound is approximated by the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency: η(CA)=1-sqrt[1-η(C)]. When Γ → ∞, the intrinsic maximum powers are proportional to the square of the temperature difference of the two reservoirs for all three systems, and the corresponding lower bounds of efficiency at maximum power can be simplified in the same form of η(-)=η(C)/[1+a(0)(2-η(C))].

On-Chip Maxwell's Demon as an Information-Powered Refrigerator

We present an experimental realization of an autonomous Maxwell's demon, which extracts microscopic information from a system and reduces its entropy by applying feedback. It is based on two capacitively coupled single-electron devices, both integrated on the same electronic circuit. This setup allows a detailed analysis of the thermodynamics of both the demon and the system as well as their mutual information exchange. The operation of the demon is directly observed as a temperature drop in the system. We also observe a simultaneous temperature rise in the demon arising from the thermodynamic cost of generating the mutual information.