Thermoelectric Cooperative Effect in Three-Terminal Elastic Transport through a Quantum Dot

The energy efficiency and power of a three-terminal thermoelectric nanodevice are studied by considering elastic tunneling through a single quantum dot. Facilitated by the three-terminal geometry, the nanodevice is able to generate simultaneously two electrical powers by utilizing only one temperature bias. These two electrical powers can add up constructively or destructively, depending on their signs. It is demonstrated that the constructive addition leads to the enhancement of both energy efficiency and output power for various system parameters. In fact, such enhancement, dubbed as thermoelectric cooperative effect, can lead to maximum efficiency and power no less than when only one of the electrical power is harvested.