Powerful energy harvester based on resonant-tunneling quantum wells

We analyze a heat engine based on a hot cavity connected via quantum wells to electronic reservoirs. We discuss the output power as well as the efficiency both in the linear and nonlinear regime. We find that the device delivers a large power of about 0.18 W cm ^−2 for a temperature difference of 1 ...

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Dades bibliogràfiques
Autors principals: Björn Sothmann, Rafael Sánchez, Andrew N Jordan, Markus Büttiker
Format: Article
Idioma:English
Publicat: IOP Publishing 2013-01-01
Col·lecció:New Journal of Physics
Accés en línia:https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/9/095021
Descripció
Sumari:We analyze a heat engine based on a hot cavity connected via quantum wells to electronic reservoirs. We discuss the output power as well as the efficiency both in the linear and nonlinear regime. We find that the device delivers a large power of about 0.18 W cm ^−2 for a temperature difference of 1 K, nearly doubling the power that can be extracted from a similar heat engine based on quantum dots. At the same time, the heat engine also has good efficiency albeit reduced from the quantum dot case. Due to the large level spacings that can be achieved in quantum wells, our proposal opens a route toward room-temperature applications of nanoscale heat engines.
ISSN:1367-2630