Thermoelectric effect in superconducting nanostructures

TL;DR

This paper investigates thermoelectric effects in superconducting nanostructures, revealing that nanoscale devices can exhibit significant thermoelectric responses due to large electron temperature gradients, with advantages over macroscopic circuits.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that superconducting nanobridges can produce thermoelectric effects comparable or larger than macroscopic circuits, highlighting the impact of nanoscale temperature gradients.

Findings

Thermoelectric effects in nanobridges can be as large or larger than in macroscopic circuits.

Large electron temperature gradients are achievable in nanostructures.

Nanoscale devices mitigate masking effects from spurious magnetic fields.

Abstract

We study thermoelectric effects in superconducting nanobridges and demonstrate that the magnitude of these effects can be comparable or even larger than that for a macroscopic superconducting circuit. The reason is related to a possibility to have very large gradients of electron temperature within the nanobridge. The corresponding heat conductivity problems are considered. It is shown that the nanoscale devices allow one to get rid of masking effects related to spurious magnetic fields.