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Main Authors: Leumer, Nico G., Basko, Denis M., Jalabert, Rodolfo A., Weinmann, Dietmar, Whitney, Robert S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10192
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author Leumer, Nico G.
Basko, Denis M.
Jalabert, Rodolfo A.
Weinmann, Dietmar
Whitney, Robert S.
author_facet Leumer, Nico G.
Basko, Denis M.
Jalabert, Rodolfo A.
Weinmann, Dietmar
Whitney, Robert S.
contents Spatially-resolved heating and cooling in nanostructures is nowadays measured with various nanoscale thermometry techniques, including scanning thermometry. Yet the most commonly used theory of nanoscale heating and thermoelectricity -- Landauer scattering theory -- is not appropriate to model such measurements. Hence, we analyze a minimal model of spatially-resolved heat transfer between electrons and phonons in simple thermoelectric nanostructures. This combines Landauer scattering formalism with a Boltzmann equation for transport, revealing the non-locality of Joule heating and Peltier cooling induced by a scatterer in a nanowire. The corresponding heating or cooling of the phonons is caused by the voltage drop at the scatterer, but is often maximal at a certain distance from the scatterer. This distance is of the order of the electron-phonon scattering length. Scanning thermal microscopy, such as SQUID-on-tip thermometers, should detect this non-locality as phonon hot spots and cold spots, spatially separated from the scatterer. We provide physical arguments explaining the thermoelectric response of the combined system of wire and scatterer, and in particular, why the resulting heating and cooling is sometimes the opposite to that predicted by the standard Landauer scattering theory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_10192
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Going beyond Landauer scattering theory to describe spatially-resolved non-local heating and cooling in quantum thermoelectrics
Leumer, Nico G.
Basko, Denis M.
Jalabert, Rodolfo A.
Weinmann, Dietmar
Whitney, Robert S.
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Spatially-resolved heating and cooling in nanostructures is nowadays measured with various nanoscale thermometry techniques, including scanning thermometry. Yet the most commonly used theory of nanoscale heating and thermoelectricity -- Landauer scattering theory -- is not appropriate to model such measurements. Hence, we analyze a minimal model of spatially-resolved heat transfer between electrons and phonons in simple thermoelectric nanostructures. This combines Landauer scattering formalism with a Boltzmann equation for transport, revealing the non-locality of Joule heating and Peltier cooling induced by a scatterer in a nanowire. The corresponding heating or cooling of the phonons is caused by the voltage drop at the scatterer, but is often maximal at a certain distance from the scatterer. This distance is of the order of the electron-phonon scattering length. Scanning thermal microscopy, such as SQUID-on-tip thermometers, should detect this non-locality as phonon hot spots and cold spots, spatially separated from the scatterer. We provide physical arguments explaining the thermoelectric response of the combined system of wire and scatterer, and in particular, why the resulting heating and cooling is sometimes the opposite to that predicted by the standard Landauer scattering theory.
title Going beyond Landauer scattering theory to describe spatially-resolved non-local heating and cooling in quantum thermoelectrics
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10192