Conceptual design and simulation investigation of an electronic cooling device powered by hot electrons

摘要

Most electronic cooling devices are powered by an external bias applied between the cold and the hot reservoirs. Here we propose a new concept of electronic cooling, in which cooling is achieved by using a reservoir of hot electrons as the power source. The cooling device incorporates two energy filters with the Lorentzian transmission function to respectively select low- and high-energy electrons for transport. Based on the proposed model, we analyze the performances of the device varying with the resonant levels and half widths of two energy filters and establish the optimal configuration of the cooling device. It is believed that such a novel device may be practically used in some nano-energy fields. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.