Thermoelectric figure of merit as a function of carrier propagation angle in semiconducting superlattices

Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials: From Superlattices to Nanocomposites

Energy transport in nanostructures differs significantly from macrostructures because of classical and quantum size effects on energy carriers. Experimental results show that the thermal conductivity values of nanostructures such as superlattices are significantly lower than that of their bulk constituent materials. The reduction in thermal conductivity led to a large increase in the thermoelec...

Effect of phonon confinement on the thermoelectric figure of merit of quantum wells

Recently, it has been shown that the thermoelectric figure of merit is strongly enhanced in quantum wells and superlattices due to two-dimensional carrier confinement. We predict that the figure of merit can increase even further in quantum well structures with free-surface or rigid boundaries. This additional increase is due to spatial confinement of acoustic phonons and corresponding modifica...

Thermoelectric figure of merit of Bi/Pb_{1-x}Eu_{x}Te superlattices

بهبود بازده تبدیل انرژی حالت جامد با استفاده از نانوساختارهای ترموالکتریک

Solid-state energy conversion technologies such as thermoelectric refrigeration and power generation require materials with low thermal conductivity yet high electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficiency. Although semiconductors are the best thermoelectric materials, they rarely have the such features. Nanostructures such as superlattices, quantum wires, and quantum dots provide novel method...

Improved thermoelectric power factor in metal-based superlattices.

In this paper we present a detailed theory of electron and thermoelectric transport perpendicular to heterostructure superlattices. This nonlinear transport regime above barriers is also called heterostructure thermionic emission. We show that metal-based superlattices with tall barriers can achieve a large effective thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT > 5 at room temperature). A key parameter t...