cfaed Seminar Series

The next seminar held in the framework of the lecture series Nanoscience and Nanotechnology offered by KU Leuven, Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg, Université Grenoble Alpes and TU Dresden will take place on 28 February 2017!

Speaker: Dr. Janine Splettstößer, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Title: Thermoelectric effects at the nanoscale

Date: Tuesday 28 February 2017, 5pm

Place: BIOTEC, seminar rooms E05/E06 (Broadcasted from Chalmers, Sweden!)

Abstract:

I will start this lecture with a short introduction to thermoelectric effects in general, their applications and arising challenges.
The motivation to study thermoelectric effects in devices at the nanoscale is twofold. On one hand nanoelectronic devices are promising for applications in future information technology; naturally, cooling of these systems will be a true challenge that requires continued research efforts.
But there are also urging fundamental questions and new possibilities that emerge when studying the thermodynamics of nanoscale devices. This lecture will show how quantum effects (like a discrete energy spectrum) and the extremely small size of the devices (possibly smaller than the thermalization length) give rise to unexpected features relevant for thermoelectrics.

Janine Splettstößer received her Diploma in Physics from the University of Karlsruhe (TH) in Germany in 2003 and her PhD in 2007 as a combined degree from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Italy. After a postdoctoral research stay in the group of Markus Büttiker in Geneva in Switzerland, she has led a junior research group at the RWTH Aachen in Germany from 2009 to 2013. She is now an Associate Professor at the Department for Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers, Gothenburg, in Sweden. Janine Splettstößer's research in the field of Theoretical Physics deals with electronic and thermal properties and the dynamics of nanoscale devices.