The lecture ran from November 5 to December 18, 2013. It is the second part of a two-year cycle devoted to thermoelectric effects: after a first year devoted mainly to "bulk" materials and their applications, this year's lecture focused on recent developments involving these effects in small quantum conductors, and described their first demonstration in ultra-cold atomic gases. After a few general reminders of these effects, a first lecture was devoted to establishing the expression of thermoelectric coefficients in the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. A second lecture described experiments on quantum point contacts and quantum dots, and their theoretical interpretation within the framework of this formalism. After a reminder of thermodynamic aspects and the efficiency of a thermoelectric device, the third lecture showed how to improve this efficiency by energy filtering (Dresselhaus, Mahan-Sofo). The fourth lecture looked at heat transport in the quantum regime and its links with information theory. In a fifth lecture, very recent developments concerning thermoelectric effects in ultra-cold atomic gases were discussed, and a final lecture considered entropy transport and the "second sound" in superfluids.
These lectures were complemented and enriched by a series of seminars. Several of these (given by J.-L. Pichard, B. Sothmann, L. Molenkamp) dealt with thermoelectric effects in mesoscopic conductors. During his visit, L. Molenkamp also gave a second seminar reviewing current experimental research on "topological insulators". O. Bourgeois discussed nano-phononics and thermal transport in nano-systems. J.-Ph. Brantut and Ch. Grenier presented recent experimental and theoretical work on the observation of coupled particle transport and entropy effects in ultra-cold atomic gases. Finally, R. Grimm described the first experimental observation of second sound in these gases.