A new method of refrigeration is proposed. Cooling is obtained by thermionic emission of electrons over periodic barriers in a multilayer geometry. These could be either Schottky barriers between metals and semiconductors or else barriers in a semiconductor superlattice. The same device is an efficient power generator. A complete theory is provided.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9801187,
title = {Multilayer Thermionic Refrigerator and Generator},
author = {G. D. Mahan and J. O. Sofo and M. Bartkowiak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9801187},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
17 pages with 5 postscript figures, submitted to J. Appl. Phys