Brownian refrigeration by hybrid tunnel junctions

Abstract

Voltage fluctuations generated in a hot resistor can cause extraction of heat from a colder normal metal electrode of a hybrid tunnel junction between a normal metal and a superconductor. We extend the analysis presented in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 210604 (2007)] of this heat rectifying system, bearing resemblance to a Maxwell's demon. Explicit analytic calculations show that the entropy of the total system is always increasing. We then consider a single electron transistor configuration with two hybrid junctions in series, and show how the cooling is influenced by charging effects. We analyze also the cooling effect from nonequilibrium fluctuations instead of thermal noise, focusing on the shot noise generated in another tunnel junction. We conclude by discussing limitations for an experimental observation of the effect.

16 pages, 16 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Artificial Brownian motors: Controlling transport on the nanoscale
• Optimal energy quanta to current conversion
• Single-mode heat conduction by photons
• Brownian refrigerator
• Normal metal - superconductor tunnel junction as a Brownian refrigerator
• Theory of quantum noise detectors based on resonant tunneling

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• Theory of single-electron heat engines coupled to electromagnetic environments
• Spin-dependent thermoelectric phenomena in a quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic and superconducting electrodes
• On-Chip Cooling by Heating with Superconducting Tunnel Junctions
• Gambling with superconducting fluctuations
• Fundamental aspects of steady state heat to work conversion
• Mesoscopic electron transport and atomic gases, a review of Frank W. J. Hekking's scientific work