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Nonlinear Thermoelectric Response of Quantum Dots: Renormalized Dual Fermions Out of Equilibrium

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New Materials for Thermoelectric Applications: Theory and Experiment

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Abstract

The thermoelectric transport properties of nanostructured devices continue to attract attention from theorists and experimentalist alike as the spatial confinement allows for a controlled approach to transport properties of correlated matter. Most of the existing work, however, focuses on thermoelectric transport in the linear regime despite the fact that the nonlinear conductance of correlated quantum dots has been studied in some detail throughout the last decade. Here, we review our recent work on the effect of particle-hole asymmetry on the nonlinear transport properties in the vicinity of the strong coupling limit of Kondo-correlated quantum dots and extend the underlying method, a renormalized superperturbation theory on the Keldysh contour, to the thermal conductance in the nonlinear regime. We determine the charge, energy, and heat current through the nanostructure and study the nonlinear transport coefficients, the entropy production, and the fate of the Wiedemann-Franz law in the non-thermal steady-state. Our approach is based on a renormalized perturbation theory in terms of dual fermions around the particle-hole symmetric strong-coupling limit.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Bolech, T. Costi, A.C. Hewson, D. Natelson, J. Paaske, P. Ribeiro, G. Scott and V. Zlatić for many stimulating discussions. E.M. and S.K. acknowledge support by the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT), grant No. 11100064 and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under grant No. 52636698.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzer Str. 40, 01187, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Kirchner

  2. Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Kirchner & Farzaneh Zamani

  3. Facultad de Fisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile

    Enrique Muñoz

Authors
  1. Stefan Kirchner
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  2. Farzaneh Zamani
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  3. Enrique Muñoz
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Correspondence to Stefan Kirchner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Bijenicka cesta 46, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

    Veljko Zlatic

  2. , Department of Mathematics, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom

    Alex Hewson

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Kirchner, S., Zamani, F., Muñoz, E. (2013). Nonlinear Thermoelectric Response of Quantum Dots: Renormalized Dual Fermions Out of Equilibrium. In: Zlatic, V., Hewson, A. (eds) New Materials for Thermoelectric Applications: Theory and Experiment. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4984-9_10

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