Anomalous enhancement of thermoelectric power factor by thermal management with resonant level effect
- 28 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
- Vol. 9 (8) , 4851-4857
Abstract
Obtaining high thermoelectric performance has been the biggest historical challenge for thermoelectric power generation. Here, we propose a methodology for thermoelectric power factor enhancement: thermal management with resonant level effect for simultaneous increase of electrical conductivity σ and Seebeck coefficient S. Au crystals and Au impurities are introduced into SiGe. Therein, (1) highly-conductive Au crystals increased σ. (2) Au impurities brought about resonant level effect and phonon scattering, resulting in enhanced S and lowered thermal conductivity κ of SiGe. (3) This κ distribution control brings the focus of temperature difference on SiGe parts with lowered κ, resulting in the availability of the enhanced S of SiGe parts as effective S of the entire nanocomposite. Consequently, we achieved the highest S2σ at room temperature among SiGe-related materials ever reported. Electronic structure calculation and measurement support the existence of resonant levels, which enhances S and lowers κ. These results provide a new route to thermoelectric performance enhancement.Keywords
Funding Information
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (JPMJCR1524)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research, 19K22110)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research A, 19H00853)
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