Heat transistor: demonstration of gate-controlled electronic refrigeration.
We present experiments on a superconductor-normal-metal electron refrigerator in a regime where single-electron charging effects are significant. The system functions as a heat transistor; i.e., the heat flux out from the normal-metal island can be controlled with a gate voltage. A theoretical model developed within the framework of single-electron tunneling provides a full quantitative agreement with the experiment. This work serves as the first experimental observation of Coulombic control of heat transfer and, in particular, of refrigeration in a mesoscopic system.
Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 3500, 02015 TKK, Finland.
Olli-Pentti
OP
Saira
Matthias
M
Meschke
Francesco
F
Giazotto
Alexander M
AM
Savin
Mikko
M
Möttönen
Jukka P
JP
Pekola