Thermoelectric effects, such as the generation of a particle current by atemperature gradient, have their origin in a reversible coupling between heatand particle flows. These effects are fundamental probes for materials and haveapplications to cooling and power generation. Here we demonstratethermoelectricity in a fermionic cold atoms channel, ballistic or diffusive,connected to two reservoirs. We show that the magnitude of the effect and theefficiency of energy conversion can be optimized by controlling the geometry ordisorder strength. Our observations are in quantitative agreement with atheoretical model based on the Landauer-Bu ttiker formalism. Our deviceprovides a controllable model-system to explore mechanisms of energy conversionand realizes a cold atom based heat engine.
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