Determination of thermoelectric properties from micro four-point probe measurements

Abstract Micro four-point probing is a branch of electrical metrology where (and electromagnetic) properties charge carriers such as conductance, mobility, and tunneling magnetoresistance can be accurately precisely determined at the μm scale below. Here, we propose demonstrate novel application micro probe (M4PP) aimed quantifying thermoelectric sample. Specifically, show that for an AC current passing through bulk material low angular frequency ω , voltage drop across sensing electrodes 2 to first order proportional ratio ( α / κ ) its Seebeck coefficient thermal conductivity ). Verified by numerical simulations, our analytic theory then put into practice on suite p- n-type semiconductors (Si, Ge, BiTe). The M4PP estimates in these materials are characterized both high accuracy precision, suggesting in-situ µm scale.