Characterization of electrostatically defined bottom-heated InAs nanowire quantum dot systems

Conversion of temperature gradients to charge currents in quantum dot systems enables probing various concepts from highly efficient energy harvesting and fundamental thermodynamics to spectroscopic possibilities complementary to conventional bias device characterization. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept study of a device architecture where bottom-gates are capacitively coupled to an InAs nanowire and double function as local joule heaters. The device design combines the ability to heat locally at different locations on the device with the electrostatic definition of various quantum dot and barrier configurations. We demonstrate the versatility of this combined gating- and heating approach by studying, as a function of the heater location and bias, the Seebeck effect across the barrier-free nanowire, fit thermocurrents through quantum dots for thermometry and detect the phonon energy using a serial double quantum dot. The results indicate symmetric heating effects when the device is heated with different gates and we present detection schemes for the electronic and phononic heat transfer contribution across the nanowire. Based on this proof-of-principle work, we propose a variety of future experiments.

The downward propagation of split- and displacement-type SSWs in an idealised model

<p>Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) have a significant downward influence on the tropospheric circulation below, although the mechanisms governing this downward impact are not well understood. It is also not known if the type of SSW event – be them splits or displacements – play a role in determining the magnitude of the tropospheric response. We here examine the impacts of split- and displacement-type SSWs on the troposphere.</p><p>To do this, we use the recently developed model of an idealised moist atmosphere to impose zonally-asymmetric warming perturbations to the extratropical stratosphere, extending the work of a recent study by the authors in which a zonally-symmetric heating perturbation was imposed. This model of ‘intermediate complexity’ is particularly suited to this study as it incorporates the radiation scheme that is utilised by operational forecast systems, including both the ECMWF and NCEP. The radiation scheme also allows us to force the model with a realistic ozone profile, and thus to simulate realistic radiative timescales in the stratosphere. From a control run with a realistic climatology, we perform an ensemble of spin-off runs every January 1<sup>st</sup> with imposed high-latitude stratospheric heating perturbations of varying degrees of magnitude. The heating perturbation is switched on for a limited period of time to mimic the sudden nature of a SSW event and the troposphere is allowed to evolve freely. We compare the evolution of the tropospheric response to the forced split and displacement-type SSWs with free-running SSWs of the same type in the control run.</p><p>By modifying only the temperature tendency equation as opposed to the momentum budget, our experiments allow us to isolate the tropospheric response associated with changes in the polar-vortex strength (e.g., a direct or indirect modulation of planetary waves and synoptic waves), rather than due to any planetary-wave momentum torques that initially drive the SSW. Nevertheless, the imposition of wave-1 and wave-2 heating perturbations provide a more realistic post-onset SSW state than that which occurs in response to zonal-mean heating perturbations as performed in our previous study.</p>

A 3D Numerical Simulation of a Cylindrical Towel Heater With Symmetric and Asymmetric Heating

In this study a cylindrical towel heater filled with air is simulated numerically in three-dimensions, with the cylinder being heated electrically from the side. The objective is to investigate the efficiency of the heating process as to maintain the towel at a certain temperature, higher than the ambient temperature (ambient temperature outside the heating cylinder), with the heating being symmetric or asymmetric. The process is modeled analytically assuming the towel as a homogeneous and isotropic porous medium, saturated with air, and enclosed by the cylinder. The cylinder wall is heated with a constant, symmetric or asymmetric heat flux, with the bottom surface assumed adiabatic and the top isothermal in equilibrium with the ambient air. The porous-continuum mass, momentum and energy equations for the natural convection inside the cylinder, derived through volume averaging the continuum equations with appropriate closure equations, are written in nondimensional form and solved numerically using the finite-volume method. A parametric study is then performed, after identifying suitable ranges for the parameters involved, to identify the effects of the several controlling parameters, namely the cylinder heating strength (the Rayleigh number), the towel permeability (the Darcy number), form coefficient (the dimensionless form coefficient), and thermal diffusivity (modified Prandtl number). The results, in terms of volume-averaged and surface-averaged temperatures and Nusselt numbers, indicate that the Darcy and Rayleigh numbers have a predominant effect on the natural convection process inside the cylinder, with the inertia coefficient and the modified Prandtl number having lesser influence on the results. For the asymmetric heating configuration, the resulting Nusselt number is higher while the volume-averaged temperature is lower, as compared to the symmetric heating. Hence, a symmetric heating is preferable if a high average towel temperature is the objective of the heater. If a more efficient heating process is sought, on the other hand, than the asymmetric option should be the best alternative.

Influence of Intense Symmetric Heating and Variable Physical Properties on the Thermo-Buoyant Airflow Inside Vertical Parallel-Plate Channels

This paper deals with the steady, laminar, and two-dimensional natural convection inside vertical parallel-plate channels with isoflux heating. The main objective of this paper is to assess the joint influence of intense heating and variable physical properties on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the upward air. To capture the physics of the problem, the discretized conservation equations are solved by the finite-volume technique in an aggrandized computational domain that is much larger than the physical domain. Representative numerical results based on the FLUENT computer program are presented in terms of local quantities such as air velocity and temperature profiles, as well as global quantities such as the average heat transfer coefficients and mass flow rates, all in response to the controlling geometrical and thermal parameters. A detailed comparison of these results is made against those produced by the simple model limited to constant physical properties.

On Weak Zonally Symmetric ENSO Atmospheric Heating and the Strong Zonally Symmetric ENSO Air Temperature Response

Observations show that regions of anomalous deep convective El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) heating tend to be balanced by anomalous ENSO cooling elsewhere so that, averaged around the globe from (say) 10°S to 10°N, the net anomalous heating is nearly zero. The zonally symmetric heating is weak because it is approximately proportional to vertical velocity that, when averaged over a constant pressure surface S around the earth from 10°S to 10°N, is nearly zero. The horizontally averaged vertical velocity over S is small because the net horizontal geostrophic convergent flow across 10°S and 10°N is zero. Although the zonally symmetric ENSO heating is weak, the observed ENSO tropospheric air temperature anomaly has a large zonally symmetric component. Past work has shown that with weak momentum and thermal damping, Kelvin and Rossby waves can travel around the earth without significant loss of amplitude so that a zonally symmetric response is favored. This physical interpretation depends on knowing temperature and momentum anomaly damping times over the depth of the troposphere. Such times are not well known. Here a Gill tropical atmospheric model is generalized to include realistic surface friction and so theoretically estimate a frictional spindown time. Using this spindown time (approximately 3 weeks), together with an estimate of the Newtonian cooling time (1 month) the authors show, in agreement with observations, that the extremely weak zonally symmetric heating anomaly generates a symmetric air temperature anomaly comparable to the asymmetric one.