The behaviour of the current in a two-dimensional Biittiker-Landauer motor, which is a position-dependent temperature-driven Brownian motor, is investigated in the presence of entropic and energy barriers. It is found that the motion of the Brownian particles is influenced by the shape of the channel. The existence of an entropic barrier can cause an asymmetric current as the flatness ratio of the shape varies. There exists an optimized flatness ratio (nonzero) at which the current reaches its maximum value.
This paper establishes the energy selective electron (ESE) engine with double resonances as a refrigerator in one dimensional (1D) system. It consists of two infinitely large electron reservoirs with different temperatures and chemical potentials, and they are perfectly thermally insulated from each other and interaction only via a double 'idealized energy filter' whose widths are all finite. Taking advantage of the density of state and Fermi distribution in the 1D system, the heat flux into each reservoir may then be calculated. Moreover, the coefficient of performance may be derived from the expressions for the heat flux into the hot and cold reservoirs. The performance characteristic curves are plotted by numerical analysis. The influences of the resonances widths, the energy position of resonance and the space of two resonances on performance of the ESE refrigerator are discussed. The results obtained here have theoretical significance for the understanding of thermodynamic performance of the micro-nano devices.