Thermotunnel refrigerator with vacuum/insulator tunnel barrier: A theoretical analysis

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of a thermotunnel refrigerator using vacuum and insulator layers to optimize electron tunneling, resulting in high efficiency and cooling coefficients.

Contribution

It introduces a novel design with dual insulator layers to enhance tunneling efficiency and provides detailed theoretical calculations of its performance.

Findings

Increased tunneling current with high kinetic energy electrons.

Cooling coefficient as high as 40%-50%.

Efficiency remains high across various electric fields.

Abstract

The authors use two insulator layers in thermotunnel refrigerator to modify the shape of the tunneling barrier so that electrons with high kinetic energy pass it with increased probability. Theoretical analysis show that the overall tunneling current between the electrodes contains an increased number of high kinetic energy electrons and a reduced number of low energy ones, leading to high efficiency. The particular case of vacuum gap and solid insulator layer is calculated using digital methods. Efficiency remains high in the wide range of the emitter electric field. The cooling coefficient is found to be as high as 40%-50% in the wide range of the emitter electric field.