Thermoelectric properties of DC-sputtered filled skutterudite thin film

Journal Article · Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916238· OSTI ID:22399355

Fu, Gaosheng ^[1]; Zuo, Lei ^[1]; Chen, Jie ^[2]; Lu, Ming ^[3]; Yu, Liangyao ^[4]

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1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794 (United States)
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 (United States)
3. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)
4. State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084 (China)

The Yb filled CoSb{sub 3} skutterudite thermoelectric thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering. The electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, and figure of merit ZT of the samples are characterized in a temperature range of 300 K to 700 K. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are obtained to assess the phase composition and crystallinity of thin film samples at different heat treatment temperatures. Carrier concentrations and Hall mobilities are obtained from Hall Effect measurements, which provide further insight into the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient mechanisms. The thermal conductivity of thin film filled skutterudite was found to be much less compared with bulk Yb filled CoSb{sub 3} skutterudite. In this work, the 1020 K heat treatment was adopted for thin film post process due to the high degree of crystallinity as well as avoiding reverse heating effect. Thin film samples of different thicknesses were prepared with the same sputtering deposition rate and maximum ZT of 0.48 was achieved at 700 K for the 130 nm thick sample. This value was between half and one third of the bulk figure of merit which was due to the lower Hall mobility.

• OSTI ID: 22399355
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANTIMONIDES
CARRIER MOBILITY
COBALT COMPOUNDS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
HALL EFFECT
HEAT TREATMENTS
MAGNETRONS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SPUTTERING
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMOELECTRIC PROPERTIES
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY