Thermoelectric efficiency of three-terminal quantum thermal machines
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2014-08-29 v3 Quantum Physics
Abstract
The efficiency of a thermal engine working in linear response regime in a multi-terminals configuration is discussed. For the generic three-terminal case, we provide a general definition of local and non-local transport coefficients: electrical and thermal conductances, and thermoelectric powers. Within the Onsager formalism, we derive analytical expressions for the efficiency at maximum power, which can be written in terms of generalized figures of merit. Also, using two examples, we investigate numerically how a third terminal could improve the performance of a quantum system, and under which conditions non-local thermoelectric effects can be observed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.0924,
title = {Thermoelectric efficiency of three-terminal quantum thermal machines},
author = {Francesco Mazza and Riccardo Bosisio and Giuliano Benenti and Vittorio Giovannetti and Rosario Fazio and Fabio Taddei},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.0924},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
21 pages, 10 figures. Final version