title: The effect of dephasing on the thermoelectric efficiency of molecular junctions.
abstract: In this work we report the results of theoretical analysis of the effect of the thermal environment on the thermoelectric efficiency of molecular junctions. The environment is represented by two thermal phonon baths associated with the electrodes, which are kept at different temperatures. The analysis is carried out using the Buttiker model within the scattering matrix formalism to compute electron transmission through the system. This approach is further developed so that the dephasing parameters are expressed in terms of relevant energies, including the thermal energy, strengths of coupling between the molecular bridge and the electrodes and characteristic energies of electron-phonon interactions. It is shown that the latter significantly affect thermoelectric efficiency by destroying the coherency of electron transport through the considered system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Electronics, University of Puerto Rico-Humacao, CUH Station, Humacao, Puerto Rico 00791, USA Institute for Functional Nanomaterials, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Ruco 00931, USA.
authors.forename: Natalya A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Zimbovskaya
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004560:Electricity; D004579:Electron Transport; D004735:Energy Transfer; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008839:Microelectrodes; D044367:Phase Transition; D045663:Quantum Dots; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics