Thermoelectric Conversion at 30 K in InAs/InP Nanowire Quantum Dots

We demonstrate high-temperature thermoelectric conversion in InAs/InP nanowire quantum dots by taking advantage of their strong electronic confinement. The electrical conductance G and the thermopower S are obtained from charge transport measurements and accurately reproduced with a theoretical mode...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNano letters Vol. 19; no. 5; pp. 3033 - 3039
Main Authors Prete, Domenic, Erdman, Paolo Andrea, Demontis, Valeria, Zannier, Valentina, Ercolani, Daniele, Sorba, Lucia, Beltram, Fabio, Rossella, Francesco, Taddei, Fabio, Roddaro, Stefano
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Chemical Society 08.05.2019
Subjects
quantum dot
Thermoelectric conversion
Seebeck effect
mesoscopic transport
nanowire
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Summary:We demonstrate high-temperature thermoelectric conversion in InAs/InP nanowire quantum dots by taking advantage of their strong electronic confinement. The electrical conductance G and the thermopower S are obtained from charge transport measurements and accurately reproduced with a theoretical model accounting for the multilevel structure of the quantum dot. Notably, our analysis does not rely on the estimate of cotunnelling contributions, since electronic thermal transport is dominated by multilevel heat transport. By taking into account two spin-degenerate energy levels we are able to evaluate the electronic thermal conductance K and investigate the evolution of the electronic figure of merit ZT as a function of the quantum dot configuration and demonstrate ZT ≈ 35 at 30 K, corresponding to an electronic efficiency at maximum power close to the Curzon–Ahlborn limit.
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ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00276