The thermal stability of joints in thermoelectric (TE) modules, which are degraded during interdiffusion between the TE material and the contacting metal, needs to be addressed in order to utilize TE technology for competitive, sustainable energy applications. Herein, we deposit a 200 nm-thick Zr-based thin-film metallic glass (TFMG), which acts as an effective diffusion barrier layer with low ...

Using a first-principles cluster expansion, we shed light on the solid-state phase diagram and structure of the recently discovered high-performance Pb-Ag-Sb-Te thermoelectrics. The calculated bulk thermodynamics favors the formation of coherent precipitates of ordered Ag(m)Sb(n)Te(m+n) phases immiscible with rocksalt PbTe, such as AgSbTe2. The solubility is high for Pb in AgSbTe2 and low for (...

The thermoelectric (TE) performance of films of colloidal lead selenide (PbSe) quantum dots (QDs) with metal-chalcogenide complex ligands is seen to change with QD size and temperature. Films of smaller QDs have higher Seebeck coefficient magnitudes, indicating stronger quantum confinement, and lower electrical and thermal conductivities. The thermoelectric figure of merit ZT is ∼0.5 at room te...

It is shown that ion thermal conductivity close to the magnetic axis in tokamaks is reduced by a factor of |S|5/3 if (Mi/Me)(Te/Ti)/|S| À 1. Here, S is the orbit squeezing factor, Mi(Me) is the ion (electron) mass, and Ti(Te) is the ion (electron) temperature. The reduction reflects both the increase of the fraction of trapped particles by a factor of |S|1/3, and the decrease of the orbit size ...

The WMAP first year detection of a high redshift reionization through its imprints on CMB anisotropy T and TE mode angular power spectra calls for a better comprehension of the universe ionization and thermal history after the standard recombination. Different reionization mechanisms predict different signatures in the CMB, both in temperature and polarization anisotropies and in spectral disto...

Based on the ab initio calculations, we study electronic structure of BiTeI/MnBi2Te4 heterostructure interface composed anti-ferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ and polar semiconductor trilayer BiTeI. We found significant difference in properties at different types contact between substrate overlayer. While case Te-Te forms natural expansion substrate, when Dirac cone state locat...

nanocomposite materials, including noble metal nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric host medium, are interesting because of their optical properties linked to surface plasmon resonance phenomena. for studding of nonlinear optical properties and/or energy transfer process, these materials may be excited by ultrashort pulse laser with a temporal width varying from some femtoseconds to some hund...

Metal Foam-enhanced Cascaded Thermal Energy Storage (MF-CTES) has been proposed to solve the problem of poor heat transfer during heat exchange process, which is caused by unavoidable decrease of temperature differences. This paper conducts a theoretical study examining the overall thermal performance of STES (Single-stage Thermal Energy Storage), CTES (Cascaded Thermal Energy Storage) and MF-C...