Thermoelectric Corrections to Quantum Measurement

The voltage and temperature measured by a floating probe of a nonequilibrium quantum system is shown to exhibit nontrivial thermoelectric corrections at finite temperature. Using a realistic model of a scanning thermal microscope to calculate the voltage and temperature distributions, we predict quantum temperature variations along graphene nanoribbons subject to a thermal bias which are not simply related to the local density of states. Experimentally, the wavelength of the oscillations can be tuned over several orders of magnitude by gating/doping, bringing quantum temperature oscillations within reach of the spatial resolution of existing measurement techniques. We also find that the Peltier cooling/heating which causes the temperature oscillations can lead to significant errors in voltage measurements for a wide range of system.