Electrical and thermal transport throughα-T3NIS junction

We investigate the electrical and thermal transport properties of theα-T3based normal metal-insulator-superconductor (NIS) junction using Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk theory. We show that the tunneling conductance of the NIS junction is an oscillatory function of the effective barrier potential (χ) of the insulating region up to a thin barrier limit. The periodicity and the amplitudes of the oscillations largely depend on the values ofαand the gate voltage of the superconducting region, namely,U₀. Further, the periodicity of the oscillation changes fromπtoπ/2as we increaseU₀. To assess the thermoelectric performance of such a junction, we have computed the Seebeck coefficient, the thermoelectric figure of merit, maximum power output, efficiency at the maximum output power of the system, and the thermoelectric cooling of the NIS junction as a self-cooling device. Our results on the thermoelectric cooling indicate practical realizability and usefulness for using our system as efficient cooling detectors, sensors, etc and hence could be crucial to the experimental success of the thermoelectric applications of such junction devices. Furthermore, for anα-T3lattice, whose limiting cases denote a graphene or a dice lattice, it is interesting to ascertain which one is more suitable as a thermoelectric device and the answer seems to depend on theU₀. We observe that for anα-T3lattice corresponding toU0=0, graphene (α = 0) is more feasible for constructing a thermoelectric device, whereas forU0≫EF, the dice lattice (α = 1) has a larger utility.