Local electron heating in nanoscale conductors

TL;DR

This paper predicts how local electron heating occurs in nanoscale conductors due to high current densities, affecting ionic heating and suggesting experimental tests for these phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a model for bias-dependent local electron heating in nanoscale junctions and explores its impact on ionic heating and experimental detection.

Findings

Electron current density is significantly higher in nanoscale junctions.

Local electron heating increases with bias voltage.

Potential experimental methods to observe electron heating effects.

Abstract

The electron current density in nanoscale junctions is typically several orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding one in bulk electrodes. Consequently, the electron-electron scattering rate increases substantially in the junction. This leads to local electron heating of the underlying Fermi sea in analogy to the local ionic heating that is due to the increased electron-phonon scattering rates. We predict the bias dependence of local electron heating in quasi-ballistic nanoscale conductors, its effect on ionic heating, and discuss possible experimental tests of our results.