Thermoelectric refrigerator of a double-barrier InAs/InP nanowire heterostructure

Abstract

In this paper, the electron transport through a double-barrier InAs /InP nanowire heterostructure between two reservoirs at different temperatures and chemical potentials is studied. The transport probability of electron is obtained by using transfer matrix method, and the heat flow carried by the electrons transfer is derived. The performance characteristic curves of the refrigerator are plotted by numerical calculation. The influence of the barrier width and well width on the operation performance of the refrigerator is analyzed. It is found that when the well width is fixed, the position of resonance energy level increases while the width of resonance energy level decreases as the barrier width increases, and for the same bias the larger the barrier width, the smaller the cooling rate, while the larger the relative coefficient of performance. When the barrier width is fixed, for the same bias, the relative coefficient of performance will decrease as the well width increases. The curve obtained when both the well width and barrier width vary, is similar to the curve obtained when the well width varies and barrier width is fixed. Thus we can see that cooling rate and the relative cooling factor are mainly affected by the well width.