2007/08/31 by B. Huard, Benjamin Huard, H. Pothier +4
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Superconducting and THz Device Technology #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.165426
published as Physical Review B 76 (2007) 165426
arxiv created 2007/09/06 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the presence of Joule heating, the electronic temperature in a metallic resistor placed at sub-Kelvin temperatures can significantly exceed the phonon temperature. Electron cooling proceeds mainly through two processes: electronic diffusion to and from the connecting wires and electron-phonon coupling. The goal of this paper is to present a general solution of the problem in a form that can easily be used in practical situations. As an application, we compute two quantities that depend on the electronic temperature profile: the second and the third cumulant of the current noise at zero frequency, as a function of the voltage across the resistor. We also consider time-dependent heating, an issue relevant for experiments in which current pulses are used, for instance, in time-resolved calorimetry experiments.