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arXiv:1209.3942

Probing thermoelectric transport with cold atoms

Charles Grenier, Corinna Kollath, Antoine Georges

Published Sep 18, 2012• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose experimental protocols to reveal thermoelectric and thermal effects in the transport properties of ultracold fermionic atoms, using the two-terminal setup recently realized at ETH. We show in particular that, for two reservoirs having equal particle numbers but different temperatures initially, the observation of a transient particle number imbalance during equilibration is a direct evidence of thermoelectric (off-diagonal) transport coefficients. This is a time-dependent analogue of the Seebeck effect, and a corresponding analogue of the Peltier effect can be proposed. We reveal that in addition to the thermoelectric coupling of the constriction a thermoelectric coupling also arises due to the finite dilatation coefficient of the reservoirs. We present a theoretical analysis of the protocols, and assess their feasibility by estimating the corresponding temperature and particle number imbalances in realistic current experimental conditions.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1209.3942

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Thermoelectric effects, such as the generation of a particle current by a temperature gradient, have their origin in a reversible coupling between heat and particle flows. These effects are fundamental probes for materials and have applications to cooling and power generation. Here, we demonstrate thermoelectricity in a fermionic cold atoms channel in the ballistic and diffusive regimes, connected to two reservoirs. We show that the magnitude of the effect and the efficiency of energy conversion can be optimized by controlling the geometry or disorder strength. Our observations are in quantitative agreement with a theoretical model based on the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Our device provides a controllable model system to explore mechanisms of energy conversion and realizes a cold atom-based heat engine.
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