Probing electromagnetic wave energy with an in-series assembly of thermoelectric devices

Abstract

We study the interaction of radio waves, microwaves, and infrared laser light of power P and period τ with a macroscopic thermoelectric (TEC) device-based detector and probe the energy Pτ as being the energy of these electromagnetic (EM) waves. Our detectors are in-series assemblies of TEC devices. We treat these detectors as equivalent to capacitors and/or inductors. The energy Pτ enables characterizing detector’s parameters, such as equivalent capacitance, inductance, resistance, responsivities, effective power, and efficiency. Through various scaling procedures, Pτ also aids in determining the power P of the EM waves. We compare the performance of our detectors with that of other TEC devices and with radio- and microwave-sensitive devices reported in the current literature, such as spin–orbit torque and spin–torque oscillator devices, heterojunction backward tunnel diodes, and Schottky diodes. We observe that the performance of our detectors is inferior. However, the order of magnitude of our detector’s parameters is in reasonable agreement with those of other TEC and non-TEC devices. We conclude that TEC devices can be used to detect radio waves and that Pτ effectively captures the energy of the EM waves. Considering Pτ as the EM wave’s energy offers a classical approach to the interaction of EM waves with matter in which photons are not involved. With the EM wave’s energy depending upon two variables (P and τ), a similar response could be produced by, e.g., radio waves and visible light, leading to interesting consequences that we briefly outline.