How to measure the entropy of a mesoscopic system via thermoelectric transport
Yaakov Kleeorin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, University of Chicago)
Holger Thierschmann (TU Delft - QN/Klapwijk Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Hartmut Buhmann (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Antoine Georges (Flatiron Institute, New York, Collège de France, Université de Genève, CNRS - Guyancourt)
Laurens W. Molenkamp (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Yigal Meir (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
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Abstract
Entropy is a fundamental thermodynamic quantity indicative of the accessible degrees of freedom in a system. While it has been suggested that the entropy of a mesoscopic system can yield nontrivial information on emergence of exotic states, its measurement in such small electron-number system is a daunting task. Here we propose a method to extract the entropy of a Coulomb-blockaded mesoscopic system from transport measurements. We prove analytically and demonstrate numerically the applicability of the method to such a mesoscopic system of arbitrary spectrum and degeneracies. We then apply our procedure to measurements of thermoelectric response of a single quantum dot, and demonstrate how it can be used to deduce the entropy change across Coulomb-blockade valleys, resolving, along the way, a long-standing puzzle of the experimentally observed finite thermoelectric response at the apparent particle-hole symmetric point.
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