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Portrait of Andreas Wacker. Photo: Kennet Ruona

Andreas Wacker

Professor

Portrait of Andreas Wacker. Photo: Kennet Ruona

Nonlinear thermoelectric efficiency of superlattice-structured nanowires

Author

  • Hossein Karbaschi
  • John Lovén
  • Klara Courteaut
  • Andreas Wacker
  • Martin Leijnse

Summary, in English

We theoretically investigate nonlinear ballistic thermoelectric transport in a superlattice-structured nanowire. By a special choice of nonuniform widths of the superlattice barriers - analogous to antireflection coating in optical systems - it is possible to achieve a transmission which comes close to a square profile as a function of energy. We calculate the low-temperature output power and power-conversion efficiency of a thermoelectric generator based on such a structure and show that the efficiency remains high also when operating at a significant power. To provide guidelines for experiments, we study how the results depend on the nanowire radius, the number of barriers, and on random imperfections in barrier width and separation. Our results indicate that high efficiencies can indeed be achieved with today's capabilities in epitaxial nanowire growth.

Department/s

  • Mathematical Physics
  • NanoLund: Center for Nanoscience
  • Solid State Physics

Publishing year

2016-09-08

Language

English

Publication/Series

Physical Review B

Volume

94

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Physical Society

Topic

  • Condensed Matter Physics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1098-0121