Electron interaction effects on the thermoelectric power of a quantum dot at T > TK

Abstract

In the absence of phonon thermal conductivity, we theoretically investigate the output power of an interacting quantum dot thermoelectric setup that is moderately coupled to two electronic reservoirs in the regime T ≫ T K . In the noninteracting case, the output power is maximized when the energy level of the dot is around a critical value e c . We find that when the energy level of the dot is lower than e c , Coulomb interaction can enhance the maximum thermoelectric power that can be achieved by tuning the bias and a wider operating region is also observed. However, when the energy level of the dot is higher than e c , Coulomb interaction suppresses the maximum power. Finally when the dot level is around e c , Coulomb interaction has minimal effects on the maximum power.