Thermoelectric Transport in Nanoscale Materials

Measurements of thermoelectric transport coefficients yield important information regarding fundamental properties of a system in addition to the information supplied from the electronic transport measurements. In this thesis we report gate dependent and temperature dependent conductance (G) and thermoelectric power (TEP) measurements made in three different basic nanomaterials: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs), multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs), and silicon nanowires (SiNWs). There are two means of generating a thermoelectric voltage: carrier diffusion and phonon drag. Gate dependent measurements of metallic SWNTs verified the use of the mesoscopic Mott formula, the equation governing diffusive thermoelectric voltage, used to relate TEP with the conductance. We find phonon drag negligible in graphene based systems. In the semi-conducting SWNT we observed high valued and variable TEP. In addition, the TEP behaves according to a simple Schottky barrier (SB) controlled transport model where transport takes place by quantum mechanical tunneling through the barrier, or thermal activation over it, depending on the value of the gate electric field. We also observe saw-tooth oscillations of the TEP in weakly contacted SWNTs at temperatures below the charging energy, indicative of Coulomb blockade transport. Importantly, we made quantitative measurements of the TEP oscillation amplitude, agreeing well with theory. In the MWNT, the Mott formula describes well the TEP within a framework of multiple parallel channels. We observe TEP weighting in this parallel system. In conjunction with conductance measurements, by probing the TEP in MWNTs we are able to extract the number of shells participating in electrical transport. These results agree well with figures obtained independently in controlled breakdown experiments, and the temperature dependent results may prove useful for investigation of the intershell interaction energy. We also investigate TEP in the SiNW, where TEP response appears similar to that of the semi-conducting SWNT, but with subtle differences. In the SiNW, both SB and bulk controlled transport contribute to the overall TEP, and must be considered within a series transport model, weighted appropriately by their length. These measurements give us insight into the SiNW transport properties.