Thermoelectricity and refrigeration in Coulomb coupled single electron systems

Aalto Quantum Physics Seminar (Nanotalo). Speaker: Mr. Paolo Erdman (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy).

Single electron systems display interesting thermoelectric properties thanks to energy selective electron tunneling. In this seminar we will first present theoretical and experimental results on the thermovoltage across a NININ structure emphasizing the role of co-tunneling, a coherent two electron transport mechanism, to obtain quantitatively correct results. We will then discuss a simple implementation of a self-contained refrigerator, a system that uses heat instead of work to achieve refrigeration, based on two Coulomb coupled single electron systems.
We determine the optimal system parameters to maximize the cooling power and cooling efficiency, and discuss possible experimental implementations based on Coulomb coupled quantum dots or metallic islands.