Conditions for requiring nonlinear thermoelectric transport theory in nanodevices

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the conditions under which the nonlinear transport theory is inescapable, when a correlated quantum dot is symmetrically coupled to two leads submitted to temperature and voltage biases. By detailed numerical comparisons between nonlinear and linear currents, we show that the claimed nonlinear behavior in a temperature gradient for the electric current is not so genuine, and the linear theory made at the operating temperature $\bar{T}= (T_H+T_C)/2$ is unexpectedly robust. This is demonstrated for the single impurity Anderson model, in different regimes: resonant tunneling, Coulomb blockade and Kondo regimes.