Thermal generation of shift electric current

TL;DR

This paper presents a microscopic theory explaining how energy dissipation in non-centrosymmetric quantum wells generates a direct electric current via electron wavepacket shifts during phonon scattering.

Contribution

It introduces a novel phonogalvanic effect theory for narrow band gap zinc-blende quantum wells, linking energy dissipation to electric current generation.

Findings

Energy dissipation causes a shift current in quantum wells.

Wavepacket shifts during phonon scattering drive the current.

The theory applies to zinc-blende quantum well structures.

Abstract

It is shown that the dissipation of energy in an electron gas confined in a quantum well made of non-centrosymmetric crystal leads to a direct electric current. The current originates from the real-space shift of the wavepackets of Bloch electrons at the electron scattering by phonons, which tends to restore thermal equilibrium between the electron and phonon subsystems. We develop a microscopic theory of such a phonogalvanic effect for narrow band gap zinc-blende quantum wells.