Minority carrier barrier heterojunctions for improved thermoelectric efficiency

被引：31

作者：

Burke, Peter G. ^{[1
]}

Curtin, Benjamin M. ^{[2
]}

Bowers, John E. ^{[1
,2
]}

Gossard, Arthur C. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Mat, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA

[2] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Elect & Comp Engn, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA

来源：

NANO ENERGY | 2015年 / 12卷

关键词：

Thermaelectrics; Heterojunction barrier; Molecular beam epitaxy; Unipolar; ACCUMULATION; SURFACES; INAS; BAND;

D O I：

10.1016/j.nanoen.2015.01.037

中图分类号：

O64 [物理化学（理论化学）、化学物理学];

学科分类号：

070304 ; 081704 ;

摘要：

We propose and demonstrate the beneficial use of minority carrier blocking layers to lessen bipolar conduction at elevated temperatures and increase the Seebeck coefficient in a thermoelectric material. Bipolar conduction, caused by thermally activated intrinsic carriers in semiconductors, causes a detrimental "roll-over" in the Seebeck coefficient and increase in thermal conductivity, measured as a function of temperature. We propose that these negative effects can be lessened or delayed in a small band gap host matrix by incorporating wider band gap semiconductor layers to impede the thermal diffusion of minority carriers over majority carriers. To prove this concept, a composite material grown by molecular beam epitaxy of ptype InAs layers and electron blocking p-type AlSb layers were grown and measured. We show improved thermoelectric properties over just p-type InAs in measurements from 110 K to 600 K. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

引用

页码：735 / 741

页数：7

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