Thermoelectricity modeling with cold dipole atoms in Aubry phase of optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the thermoelectric properties of cold dipole atoms in an optical lattice, revealing exceptionally high thermoelectric efficiency in the Aubry phase, with potential for experimental realization.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical and numerical analysis of thermoelectricity in cold atom chains within the Aubry phase, highlighting unprecedented ZT values.

Findings

Aubry phase exhibits ZT = 25, ten times higher than typical materials.

Thermoelectric properties sharply improve when the chain enters the Aubry phase.

System is experimentally accessible with magneto-dipole cold atom setups.

Abstract

We study analytically and numerically the thermoelectric properties of a chain of cold atoms with dipole-dipole interactions placed in an optical periodic potential. At small potential amplitudes the chain slides freely that corresponds to the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser phase of integrable curves of a symplectic map. Above a certain critical amplitude the chain is pinned by the lattice being in the cantori Aubry phase. We show that the Aubry phase is characterized by exceptional thermoelectric properties with the figure of merit ZT = 25 being ten times larger than the maximal value reached in material science experiments. We show that this system is well accessible for magneto-dipole cold atom experiments that opens new prospects for investigations of thermoelectricity.