Excited-state-induced nonlinearity and polarity reversals in the thermocurrent through a quantum dot

Abstract

Quantum dots are electrically tuneable thermal machines capable of both energy harvesting and cooling at the nanoscale in the cryogenic regime. At large thermal biases, their thermoelectric transport shows a complex behaviour, including additional extrema and polarity reversals in the thermocurrent. Though these asymmetries and nonlinearities directly affect rectification and power conversion, their origin has not been studied systematically. We address this through measurements and modelling of a single GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot whose source is heated by white-noise excitation. Using Pauli master equation for sequential tunnelling through a two-level dot, retaining the full Fermi distributions of both leads, distinct tunnel rates for the two levels, and relaxation between them, we show that the excited state acts as a second transport channel which competes with the ground-state contribution. Strong excited-state coupling combined with slow relaxation produces polarity reversals in the thermocurrent; without both, the excited state yields only additional extrema and an amplitude asymmetry across the charge degeneracy point. Experimentally, as the source temperature increases, an additional extremum emerges in the thermocurrent which develops into a polarity reversal. Using the excited-state level spacing and ground-state tunnel rate obtained independently from pulsed-gate and bias spectroscopies, the model reproduces the positions of the observed extrema and their amplitudes to within a factor of about three, placing the device in the regime of slow relaxation and strong excited-state coupling. Our results establish thermocurrent line-shape as a probe of excited-state tunnelling and relaxation in quantum dots. Excited states, often treated as a minor correction, can dominate quantum-dot thermoelectric transport far from equilibrium.