Thermopower enhancement in quantum wells with the Rashba effect

Journal Article · Mon Nov 17 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902134· OSTI ID:22392016

Wu, Lihua ^[1]; Yang, Jiong; Wang, Shanyu; Wei, Ping; Yang, Jihui ^[2]; Zhang, Wenqing ^[1]; Chen, Lidong ^[1]

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1. State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050 (China)
2. Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 (United States)

We theoretically demonstrate that the thermopower in two-dimensional quantum wells (QWs) can be significantly enhanced by its Rashba spin-splitting effect, governed by the one-dimensional density of states in the low Fermi energy region. The thermopower enhancement is due to the lower Fermi level for a given carrier concentration in Rashba QWs, as compared with that in normal two-dimensional systems without the spin-splitting effect. The degenerate approximation directly shows that larger strength of Rashba effect leads to higher thermopower and consequently better thermoelectric performance in QWs.

• OSTI ID: 22392016
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 20; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
APPROXIMATIONS
DENSITY OF STATES
FERMI LEVEL
QUANTUM WELLS
SPIN
TWO-DIMENSIONAL SYSTEMS