Universality and the thermoelectric transport properties of semiconductor nanostructures

• Grant number: 11/20865-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: February 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Nunes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Luiz Nunes de Oliveira
• Visiting researcher: Roberto Emilio Franco Peñaloza
• Visiting researcher institution: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UN), Colombia
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 07/57630-5 - Non-perturbative methods applied to strongly correlated electronic systems, AP.TEM

Abstract

We propose to derive universal relations describing the thermoelectric properties of semiconductor nanostructures, i.e., relations describing the thermal dependence of the thermal conductance and thermopower. More generally, we seek relations allowing quantitative comparison with experimental data. To this end, we will have to explore the universality of physical properties of nanostructures at low temperatures. While it is easy to claim that Kondo systems have universal properties, experience shows that universal relations are not always easy to find. The linear mapping relating the thermal dependence of the electrical conductance to a universal function of temperature, for instance, was only identified two years ago, fifteen years after the first numerical computation of the conductance. Our plan is to extend that result to the other thermoelectric transport properties. Our approach is based on the analytical tools of renormalization-group theory. We also plan to compare the resulting expressions with numerical renormalization-group data. (AU)