Retracted Article: Enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit in a triple-quantum-dot ring induced by Aharonov–Bohm effect

Abstract

AbstractI study electronic transport and thermoelectric properties of a triple-quantum-dot (TQD) ring coupled with two thermal contacts through nonequilibrium Green’s function approach. Using the tight-binding Hamiltonian model and the linear-response theory, electronic conductance, thermal conductance, Seebeck coefficient and thermoelectric figure of merit in the TQD device are investigated by adjusting magnetic flux and interdot electronic hopping. We find that the magnetic flux induces a strong antiresonance in the electronic and thermal conductance, leading to a violation of the Wiedemann–Franz law in the TQD ring. As a result, the Seebeck coefficient and the thermoelectric figure of merit are enhanced remarkably. Moreover, the energy positions of the enhanced thermopower and the thermoelectric efficiency can be adjusted by the interdot hopping in the TQD ring. These results provide an effective route to enhance and adjust the thermoelectric efficiency in multiple-QD systems with ring configurations.