Thermoelectric energy harvesting with quantum dots

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical advances in thermoelectric energy harvesting using quantum dots, exploring various nanoscale heat engine configurations and their connections to spin caloritronics and quantum electrodynamics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of quantum-dot based thermoelectric systems, including Coulomb blockade, chaotic cavities, and bosonic-driven heat engines, highlighting recent theoretical developments.

Findings

Quantum dots enable efficient nanoscale heat engines.

Bosonic degrees of freedom can drive quantum-dot heat engines.

Connections to spin caloritronics and circuit QED are explored.

Abstract

We review recent theoretical work on thermoelectric energy harvesting in multi-terminal quantum-dot setups. We first discuss several examples of nanoscale heat engines based on Coulomb-coupled conductors. In particular, we focus on quantum dots in the Coulomb-blockade regime, chaotic cavities and resonant tunneling through quantum dots and wells. We then turn towards quantum-dot heat engines that are driven by bosonic degrees of freedom such as phonons, magnons and microwave photons. These systems provide interesting connections to spin caloritronics and circuit quantum electrodynamics.