Bipolar Thermoelectric Josephson Engine

Abstract

Thermoelectric effects in metals are typically small due to the nearly-perfect particle-hole (PH) symmetry around their Fermi surface [1, 2]. Despite being initially considered paradoxical [3], thermophase effects [4-8] and linear thermoelectricity [9] in superconducting systems were identified only when PH symmetry is explicitly broken [10-14]. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that a superconducting tunnel junction can develop a very large bipolar thermoelectric effect in the presence of a nonlinear thermal gradient thanks to spontaneous PH symmetry breaking [15]. Our junctions show a maximum thermovoltage of $\pm 150\mu$ V at $\pm 650$ mK, directly proportional to the superconducting gap. Notably, the corresponding Seebeck coefficient of $\pm 300\mu$V/K is roughly $10^5$ times larger than the one expected for a normal metal at the same temperature [16, 17]. Moreover, by integrating our junctions into a Josephson interferometer, we realize a bipolar thermoelectric Josephson engine (BTJE) [18] with phase-coherent thermopower control [19]. When connected to a generic load, the BTJE generates a phase-tunable electric power up to about 140 mW/m${}^2$ at subKelvin temperatures. In addition, our device implements the prototype for a persistent thermoelectric memory cell, written or erased by current injection [20]. We expect that our findings will trigger thermoelectricity in PH symmetric systems, and will lead to a number of groundbreaking applications in superconducting electronics [21], cutting-edge quantum technologies [22-24] and sensing [25].

18 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Quantum Computing
• Nonequilibrium fluctuations in quantum heat engines: Theory, example, and possible solid state experiments
• Nonlocal Thermoelectric Effects and Nonlocal Onsager Relations in a Three-Terminal Proximity-Coupled Superconductor-Ferromagnet Device
• Recombination limited energy relaxation in a BCS superconductor
• Thermoelectric conversion at 30K in InAs/InP nanowire quantum dots
• Very large thermophase in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions
• Thermopower induced by a supercurrent in superconductor-normal-metal structures
• Quantitative measurements of the thermal resistance of Andreev interferometers
• Suppression of the critical current of a balanced SQUID

Cited by in corpus (31)

• Quantum Engines and Refrigerators
• Energy dynamics, heat production and heat-work conversion with qubits: towards the development of quantum machines
• Superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids for non-reciprocal electronics and detectors
• Phase-control of bipolar thermoelectricity in Josephson tunnel junctions
• Bipolar Thermoelectricity in Bilayer-Graphene--Superconductor Tunnel Junctions
• A highly-sensitive broadband superconducting thermoelectric single-photon detector
• Thermoelectric processes of quantum normal-superconductor interfaces
• Applications of Superconductor-Normal Metal Interfaces
• Thermoelectric signatures of order-parameter symmetries in iron-based superconducting tunnel junctions
• Extremely weak sub-kelvin electron-phonon coupling in InAs On Insulator
• Superconducting Spintronic Heat Engine
• Bonding Hierarchy and Coordination Interaction Leading to High Thermoelectricity in Wide Bandgap TlAgI2
• Nonlocal thermoelectric detection of interaction and correlations in edge states
• Thermodynamic uncertainty relations in superconducting junctions
• Tunable Thermoelectric Superconducting Heat Pipe and Diode
• Scattering theory of thermal and bipolar thermoelectric diodes
• Microwave-assisted thermoelectricity in SIS' tunnel junctions
• Quantum thermocouples: nonlocal conversion and control of heat in nanostructures
• Giant Thermoelectric Response of Fluxons in Superconductors
• Nonequilibrium regimes for quasiparticles in superconducting qubits with gap-asymmetric junctions
• Bipolar thermoelectrical SQUIPT (BTSQUIPT)
• Bipolar thermoelectric superconducting single-electron transistor
• Spin-chain based quantum thermal machines
• Quantum Interference Supernodes, Thermoelectric Enhancement, and the Role of Dephasing
• Bipolar thermoelectricity in S/I/NS and S/I/SN superconducting tunnel junctions
• Quantum coherent control of linear and nonlinear thermoelectricity on graphene nanostructure heat engines
• Active electron cooling of graphene
• Excess quasiparticles and their dynamics in the presence of subgap states
• Out-of-equilibrium nonlinear model of thermoelectricity in superconducting tunnel junctions
• Enhanced thermoelectric effects in a driven one-dimensional system
• Large Tunable Thermoelectric Effects in Superconducting Spin Valves with Commercially Available Materials