Impact of electron-electron interactions on the thermoelectric efficiency of graphene quantum point contacts
Thermoelectric materials enable us to harness dissipated energy and make electronic devices less energydemanding. Heat-to-electricity conversion requires materials with a strongly suppressed thermal conductivity but still high electronic conduction. This goal is largely achieved with the help of nan...
| Autores: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) |
| Repositorio: | Docta Complutense |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/71971 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71971 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | 538.9 Carbon Materials science Multidisciplinary Applied Physics Condensed matter Física de materiales Física del estado sólido 2211 Física del Estado Sólido |
| Sumario: | Thermoelectric materials enable us to harness dissipated energy and make electronic devices less energydemanding. Heat-to-electricity conversion requires materials with a strongly suppressed thermal conductivity but still high electronic conduction. This goal is largely achieved with the help of nanostructured materials, even if the bulk counterpart is not highly efficient. In this work, we investigate how thermoelectric efficiency is enhanced by many-body effects in graphene nanoribbons at low temperature. To this end, starting from the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model within a mean-field approximation, we carry out an extensive numerical study of the impact of electron-electron interactions on the thermoelectric efficiency of graphene nanoribbons with armchair or zigzag edges. We consider two different regimes, namely trivial and topological insulators. We find that electron-electron interactions are crucial for the appearance of interference phenomena that give rise to an enhancement of the thermoelectric efficiency of the nanoribbons. Lastly, we also propose an experimental setup that would help to test the validity of our conclusions. |
|---|