Efficiency bounds on thermoelectric transport in magnetic fields: The role of inelastic processes

Abstract

We examine the efficiency of an effective two-terminal thermoelectric device under broken time-reversal symmetry. The setup is derived from a three-terminal thermoelectric device comprising a thermal terminal and two electronic contacts, under a magnetic field. We find that breaking time-reversal symmetry in the presence of the inelastic electron-phonon processes can significantly enhance the figure of merit for delivering electric power by supplying heat from a phonon bath, beyond the one for producing the electric power by investing thermal power from the electronic heat current. The efficiency of such a device is bounded by the non-negativity of the entropy production of the original three-terminal junction. The efficiency at maximal power can be quite close to the Carnot efficiency, but then the electric power vanishes.

6 pages, 3 figures, published version

References in corpus (8)

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• Efficiency statistics at all times: Carnot limit at finite power
• Thermoelectric efficiency of three-terminal quantum thermal machines
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• Implementation of transmission functions for an optimized three-terminal quantum dot heat engine
• Enhanced thermoelectric performance actuated by inelastic processes in the channel region
• Geometric Bounds on the Power of Adiabatic Thermal Machines