https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60156-8
Regular Article
Quantum dot as spin current generator and energy harvester
Institute of Physics, M. Curie-Skłodowska
University, Radziszewskiego
10, 20-031
Lublin,
Poland
a
e-mail: karol@tytan.umcs.lublin.pl
Received: 27 February 2015
Received in final form: 24 March 2015
Published online: 4 May 2015
The thermoelectric transport in the device composed of a central nanoscopic system in contact with two electrodes and subject to the external magnetic field of Zeeman type has been studied. The device can support pure spin current in the electrodes and may serve as a source of the temperature induced spin currents with possible applications in spintronics. The system may also be used as an energy harvester. We calculate its thermodynamic efficiency η and the power output P. The maximal efficiency of the device reaches the Carnot value when the device works reversibly but with the vanishing power. The interactions between carriers diminish the maximal efficiency of the device, which under the constant load drops well below the Carnot limit but may exceed the Curzon-Ahlborn limit. While the effect of intradot Coulomb repulsion on η depends on the parameters, the interdot/interlevel interaction strongly diminishes the device efficiency.
Key words: Mesoscopic and Nanoscale Systems
© The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
