A realistic non-local heat engine based on Coulomb coupled systems

Abstract: Optimal non-local heat-engines, based on Coulomb-coupled systems, demand a sharp step-like change in the energy resolved system-to-reservoir coupling around the ground state of quantum-dots. Such a sharp step-like transition in the system-to-reservoir coupling cannot be achieved in a realistic scenario. Here, I propose realistic design for non-local heat engine based on Coulomb-coupled system, which circumvents the need for any change in the system-to-reservoir coupling, demanded by the optimal set-ups discussed in literature. I demonstrate that an intentionally introduced asymmetry (or energy difference) in the ground state configuration between adjacent tunnel coupled quantum dots, in conjugation with Coulomb coupling, is sufficient to convert the stochastic fluctuations from a non-local heat source into a directed flow of thermoelectric current. The performance, along with the regime of operation, of the proposed heat engine is then theoretically investigated using quantum-master-equation (QME) approach. It is demonstrated that the theoretical maximum power output for the proposed set-up is limited to about $50\%$ of the optimal design. Despite a lower performance compared to the optimal set-up, the novelty of the proposed design lies in the conjunction of fabrication simplicity along with reasonable power output. At the end, the sequential transport processes leading to a performance deterioration of the proposed set-up are analyzed and a method to alleviate such transport processes is discussed. The set-up proposed in this paper can be used to design and fabricate high-performance non-local cryogenic heat engines.