Thermoelectric transport through Majorana bound states and violation of Wiedemann-Franz law

J. P. Ramos-Andrade, O. Ávalos-Ovando, P. A. Orellana, S. E. Ulloa

Published 2016-08-06Version 1

We study features of the thermoelectric transport through a Kitaev chain hosting Majorana bound states (MBS) at its ends. We describe the behavior of the Seebeck coefficient and the ZT figure of merit for two different configurations between MBS and normal current leads. We find an important violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law in one of these geometries, leading to sizeable values of the thermoelectric efficiency over a narrow window in chemical potential away from neutrality. These findings could lead to interesting thermoelectric-based MBSs detection devices, via measurements of the Seebeck coefficient and figure of merit.