Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling in Nanoscale Junctions
arXiv:0908.0992 · doi:10.1021/jp110920q
Abstract
We propose a thermoelectric cooling device based on an atomic-sized junction. Using first-principles approaches, we investigate the working conditions and the coefficient of performance (COP) of an atomic-scale electronic refrigerator where the effects of phonon's thermal current and local heating are included. It is observed that the functioning of the thermoelectric nano-refrigerator is restricted to a narrow range of driving voltages. Compared with the bulk thermoelectric system with the overwhelmingly irreversible Joule heating, the 4-Al atomic refrigerator has a higher efficiency than a bulk thermoelectric refrigerator with the same due to suppressed local heating via the quasi-ballistic electron transport and small driving voltages. Quantum nature due to the size minimization offered by atomic-level control of properties facilitates electron cooling beyond the expectation of the conventional thermoelectric device theory.
8 figures
References in corpus (23)
- Highly conductive molecular junctions based on direct binding of benzene to platinum electrodes
- Giant thermopower and figure of merit in single-molecule devices
- Inelastic scattering and local heating in atomic gold wires
- Electron- and phonon transport in silicon nanowires: an atomistic approach to thermoelectric properties
- Giant Thermoelectric Effect from Transmission Supernodes
- Thermo-spin effects in a quantum dot connected to ferromagnetic leads
- Theory of non-equilibrium thermoelectric effects in nanoscale junctions
- Length-dependent conductance and thermopower in single-molecule junctions of dithiolated oligophenylene derivatives
- Cooling mechanisms in molecular conduction junctions
- Efficiency of Energy Conversion in Thermoelectric Nanojunctions
- Inelastic effects in molecular junction transport: Scattering and self-consistent calculations for the Seebeck coefficient
- Local electron heating in nanoscale conductors
- Stochastic pumping of heat: Approaching the Carnot efficiency
- Seebeck coefficient of thermoelectric moleculat junction: First-principles calculations
- Nonequilibrium isolated molecule limit
- Origin of Discrepancies in Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectra of Molecular Junctions
- Shot noise suppression at room temperature in atomic-scale Au junctions
- Mechanical properties of Pt monatomic chains
- Seebeck Coefficients in Nanoscale Junctions: Effects of Electron-vibration Scattering and Local Heating
- Inelastic Scattering in Metal-H2-Metal Junctions
- Alkanethiol-Based Single-Molecule Transistors
- Counting Statistics in Nanoscale Junctions
- Effects of Isotope Substitution on Local Heating and Inelastic current in Hydrogen Molecular Junctions
Cited by in corpus (6)
- Efficiency fluctuations in quantum thermoelectric devices
- Thermodynamic and quantum bounds on nonlinear DC thermoelectric transport
- Nonlinear thermoelectricity in point-contacts at pinch-off: a catastrophe aids cooling
- Origin of thermoelectric response fluctuations in single-molecule junctions
- The effect of fluctuations - thermal and otherwise - on the temperature dependence of thermopower in aromatic chain single-molecule junctions
- Conductance of a SET with a retarded dielectric layer in the gate capacitor