Thermodynamics of Quantum Coupled Transport

TL;DR

This paper reviews the thermodynamics of quantum coupled transport in nanoscale systems, emphasizing entropy production, and explores phenomena like thermoelectric effects and inverse currents in quantum dots.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic framework for analyzing coupled quantum transport, including novel insights into inverse currents and their conditions in quantum dot systems.

Findings

Thermoelectric effects naturally emerge from entropy production analysis.

Inverse currents can flow against thermodynamic forces without violating the second law.

Coupled quantum dot systems with attractive interactions enable inverse current phenomena.

Abstract

This review presents a thermodynamic perspective on quantum coupled transport processes in nanoscale systems. Our analysis is formulated within the framework of entropy production rate, the central quantity governing non-equilibrium processes and expressed through conjugate force-flux pairs. Although thermodynamic laws are universal across classical and quantum domains, the discussion is developed within a microscopic open quantum system framework, focusing on quantum dots (QDs) coupled to electronic reservoirs. We first examine elementary single transport processes and highlight their strong thermodynamic constraints in the near-equilibrium regime. This motivates the study of coupled transport, where multiple force-flux pairs coexist and interact, leading to richer thermodynamic behaviour. Using entropy production as the guiding principle, we analyse coupled energy and particle transport in a minimal two-terminal single-QD setup and show how conventional thermoelectric phenomena, including Seebeck and Peltier effects as well as thermoelectric heat engines and refrigerators, naturally emerge as thermodynamic cross-effects. We then extend the framework to a three-terminal coupled quantum dot (CQD) geometry, which provides a versatile platform for studying coupled transport and reduces, under suitable constraints, to the well-known S\'anchez-B\"uttiker configuration. Beyond standard cross-effects, we discuss the phenomenon of inverse currents in coupled transport (ICC), where a current flows against mutually parallel thermodynamic forces without violating the second law. We show that ICC requires breaking the symmetry between energy and particle transport and identify the conditions for its realization in coupled quantum-dot systems with attractive interdot interactions.