English

Optimal thermoelectricity with quantum spin-Hall edge states

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2019-11-06 v3

Abstract

We study the thermoelectric properties of a Kramers pair of helical edge states of the quantum spin Hall effect coupled to a nanomagnet with a component of the magnetization perpendicular to the direction of the spin-orbit interaction of the host. We show that the transmission function of this structure has the desired qualities for optimal thermoelectric performance in the quantum coherent regime. For a single magnetic domain there is a power generation close to the optimal bound. In a configuration with two magnetic domains with different orientations, pronounced peaks in the transmission functions and resonances lead to a high figure of merit. We provide estimates for the fabrication of this device with HgTe quantum-well topological insulators.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1904.12688,
  title  = {Optimal thermoelectricity with quantum spin-Hall edge states},
  author = {Daniel Gresta and Mariano Real and Liliana Arrachea},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.12688},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

main 4 pages (without references) and 5 figures, a supplemental material of 5 pages and 7 figures. v3

R2 v1 2026-06-23T08:52:18.003Z