Microwave-assisted thermoelectricity in SIS' tunnel junctions

Abstract

Asymmetric superconducting tunnel junctions with gaps ${\Delta }_1>{\Delta }_2$ have been proven to show a peculiar nonlinear bipolar thermoelectric effect. This arises due to the spontaneous breaking of electron-hole symmetry in the system, and it is maximized at the matching-peak bias $|V|=V_p=({\Delta }_1-{\Delta }_2)/e$. In this paper, we investigate the interplay of photon-assisted tunneling (PAT) and bipolar thermoelectric generation. In particular, we show how thermoelectricity, at the matching peak, is supported by photon absorption/emission processes at the frequency-shifted sidebands $V=\pm V_p+n\hslash \omega$, $n\in \mathbb{Z}$. This represents a sort of microwave-assisted thermoelectricity. We show the existence of multiple stable solutions, being associated with different photon sidebands, when a load is connected to the junction. Finally, we discuss how the nonlinear cooling effects are modified by the PAT. The proposed device can detect millimeter wavelength signals by converting a temperature gradient into a thermoelectric current or voltage.

8 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (4)

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• Bipolar thermoelectrical SQUIPT (BTSQUIPT)
• Enhanced thermoelectric effects in a driven one-dimensional system