Related papers: The absoption refrigerator as a thermal transforme…
Multi-terminal multi-dot devices have been put forward as versatile and performant setups for thermoelectric energy harvesting at the nanoscale. With a technique that encompasses and overtakes several of the usual theoretical tools used in…
Gibbs' thermodynamic entropy is given by the logarithm of the phase volume, which itself responds to heat transfer to and from thermal reservoirs. We compare the thermodynamic dissipation described by phase-volume loss with heat-transfer…
The response of electric devices to an applied thermal gradient has, so far, been studied almost exclusively in two-terminal devices. Here we present measurements of the response to a thermal bias of a four-terminal, quasi-ballistic…
We study the physical processes at work at the interface of two thermoelectric generators (TEGs) thermally and electrically connected in series. We show and explain how these processes impact on the system's performance: the derivation of…
In this article a definition of reversible processes in terms of differences in intensive Thermodynamics properties (Affinities) is proposed. This definition makes it possible to both define reversible processes before introducing the…
At the ultra-thin limit below 20 nm, a film's electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, or thermoelectricity depends heavily on its thickness. In most studies, each sample is fabricated one at a time, potentially leading to…
We present arguments to the effect that time and temperature can be viewed as a form of quantum entanglement. Furthermore, if temperature is thought of as arising from the quantum mechanical tunneling probability this then offers us a way…
We study the refrigerator working between a finite-sized cold heat bath and an infinite-sized hot heat bath (environment) in the nonlinear response regime. We assume that the initial temperature $T_i$ of the finite-sized cold heat bath…
This pedagogical comment highlights three misconceptions concerning the usefulness of the concept of negative temperature; being derived from the usual, often termed Boltzmann, definition of entropy. First, both the Boltzmann and Gibbs…
This paper presents a new device able to turn thermal gradients into electricity by using a bimetal-based heat engine coupled to an electrostatic converter. A two-steps conversion is performed: (i) a curved bimetallic strip turns the…
Understanding thermal transport in nanoscale systems presents important challenges to both theory and experiment. In particular, the concept of local temperature at the nanoscale appears difficult to justify. Here, we propose a novel…
Taking seriously the interpretation of black hole entropy as the logarithm of the number of microstates, we argue that thermal gravitons may undergo a phase transition to a kind of black hole condensate. The phase transition proceeds via…
The formalism used in describing the thermodynamics of abrupt (or first-order) phase transitions is reviewed as an application of maximum entropy inference. In this treatment, we show that the concepts of transition temperature, latent heat…
Many thermodynamic relations involve inequalities, with equality if a process does not involve dissipation. In this article we provide equalities in which the dissipative contribution is shown to involve the relative entropy (a.k.a.…
We theoretically investigate the enhancement of thermoelectric cooling performance in thermoelectric devices made of materials with inhomogeneous thermal conductivity, beyond the usual practice of enhancing thermoelectric figure of merit…
The direction of the steady-state heat currents across a generic quantum system connected to multiple baths may be engineered so as to realize virtually any thermodynamic cycle. In spite of their versatility such continuous…
An energetic justification of a thermal component during inflation is given. The thermal component can act as a heat reservoir which induces thermal fluctuations on the inflaton field system. We showed previously that such thermal…
We provide a framework for optimizing energy conversion processes in coherent quantum conductors fed by nonthermal resources. Such nonthermal resources, which cannot be characterized by temperatures or electrochemical potentials, occur in…
Polymers are usually considered as thermal insulators and their applications are limited by their low thermal conductivity. However, recent studies showed that certain polymers have surprisingly high thermal conductivity, some of which are…
Quantum thermal transistor is a microscopic thermodynamical device that can modulate and amplify heat current through two terminals by the weak heat current at the third terminal. Here we study the common environmental effects on a quantum…