Thermopower for a molecule with vibrational degrees of freedom

Abstract

We study a simple model to describe resonant tunneling through an organic molecule between two conducting leads, taking into account the vibrational modes of the molecule. We solve the model approximately analytically in the weak coupling limit and give explicit expressions for the thermopower and Seebeck coefficient. The behavior of these two quantities is studied as function of model parameters and temperature. For a certain regime of parameters a rather peculiar variation of the thermopower and Seebeck coefficient is observed. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.