Thermopower and dynamical Coulomb blockade in non-classical environments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the electromagnetic environment influences thermopower in nanoscale conductors, revealing that environmental states can significantly alter thermoelectric properties and serve as probes of environmental characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of the impact of non-classical electromagnetic environments on thermopower in single-charge tunneling, highlighting environmental effects on thermoelectric behavior.

Findings

Thermopower is strongly affected by environmental state.

Thermopower can serve as a sensitive environmental probe.

Environmental coupling influences charge and heat transfer.

Abstract

Charge and heat transfer through a nanoscale conductor is not only determined by the transmission properties of the electrons, but can also be strongly impacted by coupling to other degrees of freedom in the environment of the conductor. Here, we analyze the influence of the electromagnetic environment on a simple, yet significant thermoelectric property, the thermopower, in the simple transport scenario of single-charge transfer across a tunnel junction. Considering both thermal and out-of-equilibrium steady-state environments, we find that the thermopower can be strongly affected by the environmental state and can, in turn, act as a sensitive probe of environmental properties.