Enhanced thermoelectricity and steady-state thermodynamics of a quantum dot embedded in networked reservoirs

Thermoelectricity is substantially affected by quantum coherence. In nanostructures, one can control it, say, by changing how a dot is coupled with external leads or embedded into networked reservoirs. We theoretically demonstrate how we can improve linear and nonlinear thermoelectric performance (the efficiency and the power) by embedding a dot into a ring geometry. We find, even for the temperature much smaller than the resonant width where one cannot usually anticipate good thermoelectricity, one can achieve reasonably good thermoelectric performance by adjusting parameters. We argue how we can treat the effect of a generic network of reservoirs in the steady-state thermodynamic description for nonlinear thermoelectric transport. We also develop a scattering description, possibly with some strong correlation on the dot.

[1] NT: Quantum control of nonlinear thermoelectricity at the nanoscale, arXiv:1912.11562 [PRB 101, 115404 (2020)]
[2] NT: Quantum thermodynamics of nanoscale steady states far from equilibrium, arXiv:1710.07385 [PRB 97, 115404 (2018)].