Four-terminal hybrid driven refrigerator based on three coupled quantum dots

Abstract

In this paper, a four-terminal hybrid driven refrigerator model with three capacitively coupled quantum dots is proposed, which can be driven by the energy current injected from the highest temperature thermal reservoir and the power input to achieve the refrigeration of the low temperature reservoir. Based on the master equation we derive the expressions for charge current and heat current between three quantum dots and thermal reservoirs in the weak/strong capacitive coupling case, respectively. We numerically analyze the thermodynamic performance characteristics of the refrigerator between the cooling rate and the coefficient of performance, and the main performance parameters of the refrigerator are optimized under the condition of the maximum cooling rate. Finally, we compare the performance of this refrigerator in the strong capacitive coupling case with that in the weak capacitive coupling case.