Optimization of a three-terminal non-linear heat nano-engine

Abstract

Charge and heat transport in nano-structures is dominated by non-equilibrium effects which strongly influence their behaviour. These effects are studied in a setup consisting of three external leads, one of which is considered as a heat reservoir and is tunnel-coupled to two cold electrodes via two independently controlled quantum dots. The energy flow from the hot electrode together with energy filtering provided by quantum dots leads to a voltage bias between the cold electrodes. The heat and charge currents in the device effectively flow in mutually perpendicular directions, allowing for their independent control. The non-equilibrium screening changes the values of the system parameters needed for its optimal performance but leaves the maximal output power and efficiency unchanged. Our results are important from the theoretical point of view as well as for the practical implementation and the control of the proposed heat engine.

15 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (16)

• Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots
• Optimal energy quanta to current conversion
• Three-Terminal Energy Harvester with Coupled Quantum Dots
• Thermopower of a Kondo-correlated quantum dot
• Powerful and efficient energy harvester with resonant-tunneling quantum dots
• Finding the quantum thermoelectric with maximal efficiency and minimal entropy production at given power output
• Scattering theory of nonlinear thermoelectric transport
• Oligoyne molecular junctions for efficient room temperature thermoelectric power generation
• Thermoelectric efficiency of three-terminal quantum thermal machines
• Cooling carbon nanotubes to the phononic ground state with constant electron current
• Thermodynamic and quantum bounds on nonlinear DC thermoelectric transport
• Separation of heat and charge currents for boosted thermoelectric conversion
• Enhancing efficiency and power of quantum-dots resonant tunneling thermoelectrics in three-terminal geometry by cooperative effects
• Mixed, charge and heat noises in thermoelectric nanosystems
• Cross thermoelectric coupling in normal-superconductor quantum dots
• Using Activated Transport in Parallel Nanowires for Energy Harvesting and Hot Spot Cooling

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale
• Experimental realization of a quantum dot energy harvester
• Thermoelectric properties of an interacting quantum dot-based heat engine
• Nonlinear phenomena in quantum thermoelectrics and heat
• Efficiency bounds on thermoelectric transport in magnetic fields: The role of inelastic processes
• Enhancing Thermoelectric Performance Using Nonlinear Transport Effects
• Multi-terminal far-from-equilibrium thermoelectric nano-devices in the Kondo regime
• A multifunctional quantum thermal device: with and without inner coupling
• Implementation of transmission functions for an optimized three-terminal quantum dot heat engine
• Scattering theory of thermal and bipolar thermoelectric diodes
• Quantum thermocouples: nonlocal conversion and control of heat in nanostructures