Molecular refrigerator and thermoelectric phenomena under conditions of tunnel-resonance conductance

Abstract

The theory of thermoelectric phenomena in a metal-molecule-metal conjunction has been developed in the case of resonance conduction through the molecule. It has been shown that the resonance current may cool one of the electrodes at the biases when the resonance level is near the Fermi level: at the electron resonance, the electron resonance level should be above the Fermi level of the cooled cathode and, at the hole resonance, the hole resonance level should be below the Fermi level of the cooled anode. The energy flux cooling the electrode is proportional to the resonance current, and each electron of the current removes energy somewhat higher than kT from the corresponding electrode. Such a molecular refrigerator is effective, while kT is higher than the total width of the resonance level. Peltier and Seebeck coefficients have been found for the case when the resonance level is near the Fermi level already at the zero bias.