Correlation-induced refrigeration with superconducting single-electron transistors

A model of a superconducting tunnel junction which refrigerates a nearby metallic island without any particle exchange is presented. Heat extraction is mediated by charge fluctuations in the coupling capacitance of the two systems. The interplay of the Coulomb interaction and the superconducting gap reduces the power consumption of the refrigerator. The island is predicted to be cooled from lattice temperatures of 200mK down to close to 50mK for realistic parameters. The results emphasize the role of non-equilibrium correlations in bipartite mesoscopic conductors. This mechanism can be applied to create local temperature gradients in tunnel junction arrays or explore the role of interactions in the thermalization of non-equilibrium systems. Published by AIP Publishing.