English

Electron heating in metallic resistors at sub-Kelvin temperature

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2009-08-26 v2

Abstract

In the presence of Joule heating, the electronic temperature in a metallic resistor placed at sub-Kelvin temperatures can significantly exceed the phonon temperature. Electron cooling proceeds mainly through two processes: electronic diffusion to and from the connecting wires and electron-phonon coupling. The goal of this paper is to present a general solution of the problem, in a form that can easily be used in practical situations. As an application, we compute two quantities that depend on the electronic temperature profile: the second and the third cumulant of the current noise at zero frequency, as a function of the voltage across the resistor. We also consider time dependent heating, an issue relevant for experiments in which current pulses are used, for instance in time-resolved calorimetry experiments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.3935,
  title  = {Electron heating in metallic resistors at sub-Kelvin temperature},
  author = {B. Huard and H. Pothier and D. Esteve and K. E. Nagaev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.3935},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:11:45.143Z