Nonlinear thermoelectric efficiency of superlattice-structured nanowires

Abstract

We theoretically investigate nonlinear ballistic thermoelectric transport in a superlattice-structured nanowire. By a special choice of nonuniform widths of the superlattice barriers - analogous to anti-reflection coating in optical systems - it is possible to achieve a transmission which comes close to a square profile as a function of energy. We calculate the low-temperature output power and power-conversion efficiency of a thermoelectric generator based on such a structure and show that the efficiency remains high also when operating at a significant power. To provide guidelines for experiments, we study how the results depend on the nanowire radius, the number of barriers, and on random imperfections in barrier width and separation. Our results indicate that high efficiencies can indeed be achieved with todays capabilities in epitaxial nanowire growth.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures

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• Nonequilibrium Seebeck effect and thermoelectric efficiency of Kondo-correlated molecular junctions
• Optimized Fabry-Pérot cavity engineered nanoscale thermoelectric generators
• Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency of zigzag bilayer phosphorene nanoribbon; edge states engineering
• Implementation of transmission functions for an optimized three-terminal quantum dot heat engine
• Thermoelectric figure of merit enhancement in dissipative superlattice structures
• Filtering electrons by mode coupling in finite semiconductor superlattices
• Efficiency at maximum power of thermoelectric heat engines with the symmetric semiconductor superlattice
• Superlattice nanowire heat engines with direction-dependent power output and heat current
• Theory of shift heat current and its application to electron-phonon coupled systems