Optimizing the performance of thermionic devices using energy filtering

摘要

Conventional thermionic power generators and refrigerators utilize a barrierin the direction of transport to selectively transmit high-energy electrons.Here we show that the energy spectrum of electrons transmitted in this way isnot optimal, and we derive the ideal energy spectrum for operation in themaximum power regime. By using suitable energy filters, such as resonances inquantum dots, the power of thermionic devices can, in principle, be improved byan order of magnitude.