Unconventional four-terminal thermoelectric transport due to inelastic transport: cooling by transverse current, transverse thermoelectric effect and Maxwell demon

Abstract

We show that in mesoscopic four-terminal thermoelectric devices with two electrodes (the source and the drain) and two heat baths, inelastic scattering processes can lead to unconventional thermoelectric transport. The source (or the drain) can be cooled by passing a thermal current between the two heat baths, with no net heat exchange between the heat baths and the electrodes. This effect, termed as cooling by heat current, is a mesoscopic heat drag effect. In addition, there is a transverse thermoelectric effect where electrical current and power can be generated by a transverse temperature bias (i.e., the temperature bias between the two heat baths). This transverse thermoelectric effect, originates from inelastic scattering processes, may have advantages for improved figures of merit and power factor due to spatial separation of charge and heat transport. We study the Onsager current-affinity relations, the linear-response transport properties, and the transverse thermoelectric figure of merit of the four-terminal thermoelectric devices for various system parameters. In addition, we investigate the efficiency and power of the cooling by transverse current effect in both linear and nonlinear transport regimes. We also demonstrate that by exploiting the inelastic transport in the quantum-dot four-terminal systems, a type of Maxwell's demon can be realized using nonequilibrium heat baths.

arXiv comment11 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (51)

• Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale
• The Physics of Maxwell's demon and information
• Experimental realization of a Szilard engine with a single electron
• On-chip Maxwell's demon as an information-powered refrigerator
• Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots
• Experimental study of mutual information in a Maxwell Demon
• Optimal energy quanta to current conversion
• Three-Terminal Energy Harvester with Coupled Quantum Dots
• Three-terminal thermoelectric transport through a molecular junction
• Photonic Maxwell's demon
• Powerful and efficient energy harvester with resonant-tunneling quantum dots
• Scattering theory of nonlinear thermoelectric transport
• Magnon-driven quantum-dot heat engine
• Rectification of thermal fluctuations in a chaotic cavity heat engine
• Thermoelectric three-terminal hopping transport through one-dimensional nanosystems
• Thermoelectric transport of mesoscopic conductors coupled to voltage and thermal probes
• Full counting statistics of vibrationally-assisted electronic conduction: transport and fluctuations of the thermoelectric efficiency
• Phonon-thermoelectric transistors and rectifiers
• Chiral thermoelectrics with quantum Hall edge states
• Experimental realization of a quantum dot energy harvester
• Power-efficiency-dissipation relations in linear thermodynamics
• Vibrational cooling, heating, and instability in molecular conducting junctions: Full counting statistics analysis
• Brownian duet: A novel tale of thermodynamic efficiency
• Powerful energy harvester based on resonant-tunneling quantum wells
• Non-equilibrium System as a Demon
• Separation of heat and charge currents for boosted thermoelectric conversion
• Autonomous conversion of information to work in quantum dots
• Quantum-dot circuit-QED thermoelectric diodes and transistors
• Efficiency Statistics and Bounds for Systems with Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry
• Theory of single-electron heat engines coupled to electromagnetic environments
• Thermodynamic bounds and general properties of optimal efficiency and power in linear responses
• Single electron transistor strongly coupled to vibrations: Counting Statistics and Fluctuation Theorem
• Three-terminal semiconductor junction thermoelectric devices: improving performance
• Enhancing efficiency and power of quantum-dots resonant tunneling thermoelectrics in three-terminal geometry by cooperative effects
• Thermoelectricity without absorbing energy from the heat sources
• Qubit absorption refrigerator at strong coupling
• Thermoelectrics with Coulomb coupled quantum dots
• Cooling by heating in nonequilibrium nanosystems
• Enhancing Thermoelectric Performance Using Nonlinear Transport Effects
• Geometric Heat Engines Featuring Power that Grows with Efficiency
• Linear and Nonlinear Mesoscopic Thermoelectric Transport with Coupling to Heat Baths
• Hopping thermoelectric transport in finite systems: boundary effects
• Efficiency and dissipation in a two-terminal thermoelectric junction, emphasizing small dissipation
• Rectifying full-counting statistics in a spin Seebeck engine
• Near-field three-terminal thermoelectric heat engine
• Optimal efficiency and power and their trade-off in three-terminal quantum thermoelectric engines with two output electric currents
• Thermoelectric Cooperative Effect in Three-Terminal Elastic Transport through a Quantum Dot
• Nonlinear effects for three-terminal heat engine and refrigerator
• Staircase Quantum Dots Configuration in Nanowires for Optimized Thermoelectric Power
• Energy cooperation in quantum thermoelectric systems with multiple electric currents
• Cooperative Spin Caloritronic Devices

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Quantum Engines and Refrigerators
• Geometric thermodynamic uncertainty relation in periodically driven thermoelectric heat engine
• Nonlocal quantum heat engines made of hybrid superconducting devices
• Quantifying nonequlibrium thermodynamic operations in a multiterminal mesoscopic system
• Inelastic thermoelectric transport and fluctuations in mesoscopic system
• Multitask quantum thermal machines and cooperative effects
• Autonomous demon exploiting heat and information at the trajectory level
• Coulomb thermoelectric drag in four-terminal mesoscopic quantum transport
• Constraints between entropy production and its fluctuations in nonthermal engines
• Quantum coherence effects on inelastic thermoelectric devices: From diodes to transistors
• Quantum thermocouples: nonlocal conversion and control of heat in nanostructures
• All-thermal reversal of heat currents using qutrits
• Precision of an autonomous demon exploiting nonthermal resources and information