Bipolar thermoelectric effect in a srially coupled quantum dot system

Abstract

The Seebeck coefficient (S) of a serially coupled quantum dot (SCQD) junction system is theoretically studied via a two-level Anderson model. A change of sign in S with respect to temperature is found, which arises from the competition between tunneling currents due to electrons and holes (i.e, bipolar tunneling effect). The change of sign in S implies that one can vary the equilibrium temperature to produce thermoelectric current in either the forward or reverse direction, leading to a bipolar thermoelectric effect. For the case of two parallel SCQDs, we also observe the oscillatory behavior of S with respect to temperature.

revised argument and corrected some typos

References in corpus (5)

• Optimal energy quanta to current conversion
• Optimal thermoelectric figure of merit of a molecular junction
• Thermoelectric and thermal rectification properties of quantum dot junctions
• Pauli spin blockade in weakly coupled quantum dots
• Tunneling current spectroscopy of a nanostructure junction involving multiple energy levels