Thermopower of a ballistic nanowire subjected to an in-plane magnetic field in the presence of Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions

Abstract Using the single-particle formalism, we calculate the thermopower of conduction electrons in a nanowire considering dispersion relations containing local maxima. At low temperatures, the thermopower exhibits positive and negative peaks that are consistent with Mott's approximation. The peaks are degenerate at a certain direction of the magnetic field defined by the strengths of the Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions. The sign and the height of the peak depend on the number of channels available for conduction.