Mesoscopic thermoelectric transport near zero transmission energies

Abstract

We study the thermoelectric transport coefficients of a one-dimensional (1D) electron waveguide connected to one and then two off-channel cavities, in the presence of dephasing phonons. The model system is that of a linear chain described as a 1D lattice. For simplicity we consider single-mode cavities, which may be tuned with external gates. While the presence of only one off-channel cavity yields a nearly symmetric transmission profile, which is canceled around the cavity mode, an additional cavity modifies this profile strongly and results in an asymmetric shape characterized by oscillations. In both cases, we consider electron-phonon interactions in our calculations and analyze their effects on the transmission function around the Fermi energy. Knowledge of the energy-dependent transmission function allows the numerical computation of thermoelectric transport coefficients, including the thermopower. In the presence of a second off-channel cavity, the sign of the thermopower depends on the relative position of this cavity energy level with respect to the Fermi energy: the thermopower is positive when low-energy electrons in the vicinity of the Fermi level are not transmitted, and becomes negative when the higher-energy electrons are not transmitted.

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