The role of Coulomb interaction in thermoelectric effects of an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer.

Abstract

We investigate the thermoelectric effects of an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer with a quantum dot (QD) embedded in each of its arms, where the intra-dot Coulomb interaction between electrons in each QD is taken into account. Using Green's function methods and the equation of motion (EOM) technique, we find that the Seebeck coefficient and Lorenz number can be strongly enhanced when the chemical potential sweeps the molecular states associated with the Fano line-shapes in the transmission spectra, due to quantum interference effects between the bonding and antibonding molecular states. It is found that enhancement of the thermoelectric effects occurs between the two groups of conductance peaks in the presence of strong intra-dot Coulomb interaction-the reason being that a transmission node is developed in the Coulomb blockade regime. In this case, the maximum value of the Lorenz number approaches 10π(2)k(B)(2)/(3e(2)). Its thermoelectric conversion efficiency in the absence of phonon thermal conductance, described by the figure of merit ZT, approaches 2 at room temperature. Therefore, it may be used as a high-efficiency solid-state thermoelectric conversion device under certain circumstances.