Thermoelectric current in topological insulator nanowires with impurities

Thermoelectric properties of tubular nanowires in the presence of a transverse magnetic field

We calculate the charge and heat current associate with electrons, generated by a temperature gradient and chemical potential difference between two ends of a tubular nanowire of 30 nm radius in the presence of an external magnetic field perpendicular to its axis. We consider a nanowire based on a semiconductor material, and use the Landauer-Büttiker approach to calculate the transport quantities. We obtain the variation of the Seebeck coefficient (S), thermal conductivity (κ), and the figure of merit (ZT), with respect to the temperature up to 20 K, and with the magnetic field up to 3 T. In particular we show that the Seebeck coefficient can change sign in this domain of parameters. In addition κ and ZT have oscillations when the magnetic field increases. These oscillations are determined by the energy spectrum of the electrons.

Generalized Master Equation Approach to Time-Dependent Many-Body Transport

We recall theoretical studies on transient transport through interacting mesoscopic systems. It is shown that a generalized master equation (GME) written and solved in terms of many-body states provides the suitable formal framework to capture both the effects of the Coulomb interaction and electron-photon coupling due to a surrounding single-mode cavity. We outline the derivation of this equation within the Nakajima-Zwanzig formalism and point out technical problems related to its numerical implementation for more realistic systems which can neither be described by non-interacting two-level models nor by a steady-state Markov-Lindblad equation. We first solve the GME for a lattice model and discuss the dynamics of many-body states in a two-dimensional nanowire, the dynamical onset of the current-current correlations in electrostatically coupled parallel quantum dots and transient thermoelectric properties. Secondly, we rely on a continuous model to get the Rabi oscillations of the photocurrent through a double-dot etched in a nanowire and embedded in a quantum cavity. A many-body Markovian version of the GME for cavity-coupled systems is also presented.

Properties of the Geometric Phase in Electromechanical Oscillations of Carbon-Nanotube-Based Nanowire Resonators

The geometric phase is an extra phase evolution in the wave function of vibrations that is potentially applicable in a broad range of science and technology. The characteristics of the geometric phase in the squeezed state for a carbon-nanotube-based nanowire resonator have been investigated by means of the invariant operator method. The introduction of a linear invariant operator, which is useful for treating a complicated time-dependent Hamiltonian system, enabled us to derive the analytical formula of the geometric phase. By making use of this, we have analyzed the time behavior of the geometric phase based on relevant illustrations. The influence of squeezing parameters on the evolution of the geometric phase has been investigated. The geometric phase, in large, oscillates, and the envelope of such oscillation increases over time. The rate of the increase of the geometric phase is large when the parameters, such as the classical amplitude of the oscillation, the damping factor, and the amplitude of the driving force, are large. We have confirmed a very sharp increase of the geometric phase over time in the case that the angular frequency of the system reaches near the resonance angular frequency. Our development regarding the characteristics of the geometric phase is crucial for understanding the topological features in nanowire oscillations.

Shifted Landau levels in curved graphene sheets

We study the Landau levels in curved graphene sheets by measuring the discrete energy spectrum in the presence of a magnetic field. We observe that in rippled graphene sheets, the Landau energy levels satisfy the same square root dependence on the energy quantum number as in flat sheets, [Formula: see text]. Though, we find that the Landau levels in curved sheets are shifted towards lower energies by an amount proportional to the average spatial deformation of the sheet. Our findings are relevant for the quantum Hall effect in curved graphene sheets, which is directly related to Landau quantization. For the purpose of this study, we develop a new numerical method, based on the quantum lattice Boltzmann method, to solve the Dirac equation on curved manifolds, describing the low-energetic states in strained graphene sheets.