Thermoelectric transport properties of a chain of quantum dots with self-consistent reservoirs (Q1024228)

A model for charge and heat transport based on the Landauer-Büttiker scattering approach is introduced. The system consists of a chain of \(N\) quantum dots, each of them being coupled to a particle reservoir. Additionally, the left and right ends of the chain are coupled to two particle reservoirs. All these reservoirs are independent and can be described by any of the standard physical distributions, the Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein one. In the linear response regime, and under some assumptions (above all that the scattering matrix associated to the system does not depend on the energy), first the general transport properties of the system are described. The Onsager relations and the entropy production are discussed particularly. Then the self-consistency condition is imposed, i.e. the boundary values \((T_L,\mu_L)\) and \((T_R,\mu_R)\) are fixed, and the parameters \((T_i,\mu_i)\) are adjusted for \(i=1,2,\dots N\), so that the net average electric and heat currents into all the intermediate reservoirs vanish. These considerations are actually valid for any geometry. The self-consistency condition leads to expressions for the temperature and chemical potential profiles along the system, which turn out to be independent of the distribution describing the reservoirs. From these profiles the average electric and heat currents flowing through the system are determined. Finally, some numerical results are presented for the linear geometry, using random matrix theory, which show that these currents are typically governed by Ohm and Fourier laws.