Methodology of Thermoelectric Power Factor Enhancement by Controlling Nanowire Interface

TLDR: This work proposes a method for the power factor enhancement by introducing coherent homoepitaxial interfaces with controlled dopant concentration, which enables the quasiballistic transmission of high-energy carriers and experimentally demonstrates the dopant-controlled epitaxial interface effect for the thermoelectric powerFactor enhancement using the "embedded-ZnO nanowire structure" having high-quality nanowires.

Abstract: The simultaneous realization of low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric power factor in materials has long been the goal for the social use of high-performance thermoelectric modules. Nanostructuring approaches have drawn considerable attention because of the success in reducing thermal conductivity. On the contrary, enhancement of the thermoelectric power factor, namely, the simultaneous increase of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, has been difficult. We propose a method for the power factor enhancement by introducing coherent homoepitaxial interfaces with controlled dopant concentration, which enables the quasiballistic transmission of high-energy carriers. The wavenumber of the high-energy carriers is nearly conserved through the interfaces, resulting in simultaneous realization of a high Seebeck coefficient and relatively high electrical mobility. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the dopant-controlled epitaxial interface effect for the thermoelectric power factor enhanc...