Electric field effect thermoelectric transport in individual silicon and germanium/silicon nanowires

We have simultaneously measured conductance and thermoelectric power (TEP) of individual silicon and germanium/silicon core/shell nanowires in the field effect transistor device configuration. As the applied gate voltage changes, the TEP shows distinctly different behaviors while the electrical conductance exhibits the turn-off, subthreshold, and saturation regimes respectively. At room temperature, peak TEP value of ∼ 300 μV/K is observed in the subthreshold regime of the Si devices. The temperature dependence of the saturated TEP values are used to estimate the carrier doping of Si nanowires.