Thermoelectric performance of nano junctions subjected to microwave driven spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

Coherent charge and heat transport through periodically driven nanodevices provide a platform for studying thermoelectric effects on the nanoscale. Here we study a junction comprising a quantum dot connected to two fermionic terminals by two weak links. An AC electric field induces time-dependent spin-orbit interaction in the weak links. We show that this setup supports DC charge and heat currents and that thermoelectric performance can be improved, as reflected by the effect of the spin-orbit coupling on the Seebeck coefficient and the electronic thermal conductance. Our analysis is based on the nonequilibrium Keldysh Green's function formalism in the time domain and reveals an interesting distribution of the power supply from the AC source among the various components of the device, apparently not realized before.