Length and energy gap dependences of thermoelectricity in nanostructured junctions

The possibilities of an enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit value, ZT, in a nanostructured junction are examined for a wide range of parameter values in a theoretical model. Our research shows that the figure of merit can take a very large maximum, which depends both on the length and the energy gap values. The maximum of ZT is achieved when the Fermi level of the electrodes is aligned to the edge of the electronic transmission function of the junction, where both the conductance and the Seebeck constant are significantly enhanced. On the basis of our results, we conclude that nanowires and molecular junctions form a special class of systems where a large ZT can be expected in some cases.