Geometric Symmetry Breaking and Nonlinearity Can Increase Thermoelectric Power
Direct thermal-to-electric energy converters typically operate in the linear regime, where the ratio of actual maximum power relative to the ideal maximum power, the so-called fill factor (FF), is 0.25. Here, we show, based on fundamental symmetry considerations, that the leading order nonlinear terms that can increase the FF require devices with broken spatial symmetry. Studying nonlinear, thermo