Thermoelectric voltage at metallic point contact by nonequilibrium effect and electron tunneling eeffct

The motivation for this work is the desire to obtain a fundamental understanding of the nonequilibrium state between electrons and phonons, and to apply this phenomenon to a point temperature measurement of small heating elements such as an LSI. The experiment was carried out using a gold-gold point contact under cryogenic conditions, and a heat flux through the point contact was applied via the temperature difference across the contact. In this condition, thermoelectric voltages appeared even when the entire closed circuit consisted of the same material. In the theoretical analysis, the nonequilibrium effect and the geometric effect at the point contact were taken into account to explain the appearance of the thermoelectric voltage in a closed circuit made by the same material. Good agreement between the theory and the experiment was obtained.