Tuning thermoelectricity in a Bi2Se3 topological insulator via varied film thickness

Guo, Minghua; Wang, Zhenyu; Xu, Yong; Huang, Huaqing; Zang, Yunyi; Liu, Chang; Duan, Wenhui; Gan, Zhongxue; Zhang, Shou-Cheng; He, Ke; Ma, Xucun; Xue, Qikun; Wang, Yayu

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/18/1/015008

Tuning thermoelectricity in a Bi₂Se₃ topological insulator via varied film thickness

Journal Article · Tue Jan 12 04:00:00 EST 2016 · New Journal of Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/1/015008· OSTI ID:1254485

Guo, Minghua ^[1]; Wang, Zhenyu ^[2]; Xu, Yong ^[3]; Huang, Huaqing ^[2]; Zang, Yunyi ^[2]; Liu, Chang ^[2]; Duan, Wenhui ^[4]; Gan, Zhongxue ^[5]; Zhang, Shou-Cheng ^[6]; He, Ke ^[7]; Ma, Xucun ^[7]; Xue, Qikun ^[7]; Wang, Yayu ^[7]

Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics; Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford,CA 94305–4045, USA
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China); RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako (Japan)
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Institute for Advanced Study
ENN Intelligent Energy Group, Langfang (China)
ENN Intelligent Energy Group, Langfang (China); Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China)

We report thermoelectric transport studies on Bi₂Se₃ topological insulator thin films with varied thickness grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We find that the Seebeck coefficient and thermoelectric power factor decrease systematically with the reduction of film thickness. These experimental observations can be explained quantitatively by theoretical calculations based on realistic electronic band structure of the Bi₂Se₃ thin films. Lastly, this work illustrates the crucial role played by the topological surface states on the thermoelectric transport of topological insulators, and sheds new light on further improvement of their thermoelectric performance.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1254485

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 22552943

Journal Information:: New Journal of Physics, Journal Name: New Journal of Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 18; ISSN 1367-2630

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (24)

New Directions for Low-Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials Dresselhaus, M. S.; Chen, G.; Tang, M. Y. Advanced Materials, Vol. 19, Issue 8, p. 1043-1053 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.200600527	journal	April 2007
New and Old Concepts in Thermoelectric Materials Sootsman, Joseph R.; Chung, Duck Young; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 48, Issue 46, p. 8616-8639 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200900598	journal	November 2009
Thermal and Thermoelectric Properties of Graphene Xu, Yong; Li, Zuanyi; Duan, Wenhui Small, Vol. 10, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201303701	journal	March 2014
wannier90: A tool for obtaining maximally-localised Wannier functions Mostofi, Arash A.; Yates, Jonathan R.; Lee, Young-Su Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 178, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2007.11.016	journal	May 2008
Impact of the Topological Surface State on the Thermoelectric Transport in Sb ₂ Te ₃ Thin Films Hinsche, Nicki F.; Zastrow, Sebastian; Gooth, Johannes ACS Nano, Vol. 9, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b00896	journal	February 2015
Complex thermoelectric materials Snyder, G. Jeffrey; Toberer, Eric S. Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 105-114 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2090	journal	February 2008
Topological insulators in Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Te₃ and Sb₂Te₃ with a single Dirac cone on the surface Zhang, Haijun; Liu, Chao-Xing; Qi, Xiao-Liang Nature Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 6, p. 438-442 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1270	journal	May 2009
Observation of a large-gap topological-insulator class with a single Dirac cone on the surface Xia, Y.; Qian, D.; Hsieh, D. Nature Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 6, p. 398-402 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1274	journal	May 2009
Enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit in thin GaAs nanowires Zou, Xiaolong; Chen, Xiaobin; Huang, Huaqing Nanoscale, Vol. 7, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NR01892G	journal	January 2015
A computational study of the thermoelectric performance of ultrathin Bi ₂ Te ₃ films Maassen, Jesse; Lundstrom, Mark Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4794534	journal	March 2013
Thermoelectric properties of topological insulator Bi ₂ Te ₃ , Sb ₂ Te ₃ , and Bi ₂ Se ₃ thin film quantum wells Osterhage, Hermann; Gooth, Johannes; Hamdou, Bacel Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896680	journal	September 2014
Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of merit Hicks, L. D.; Dresselhaus, M. S. Physical Review B, Vol. 47, Issue 19, p. 12727-12731 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.47.12727	journal	May 1993
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set Kresse, G.; Furthmüller, J. Physical Review B, Vol. 54, Issue 16, p. 11169-11186 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.11169	journal	October 1996
Maximally localized generalized Wannier functions for composite energy bands Marzari, Nicola; Vanderbilt, David Physical Review B, Vol. 56, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.56.12847	journal	November 1997
Maximally localized Wannier functions for entangled energy bands Souza, Ivo; Marzari, Nicola; Vanderbilt, David Physical Review B, Vol. 65, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.65.035109	journal	December 2001
Spectral and Fermi surface properties from Wannier interpolation Yates, Jonathan R.; Wang, Xinjie; Vanderbilt, David Physical Review B, Vol. 75, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.75.195121	journal	May 2007
Nonequilibrium Green’s function method for phonon-phonon interactions and ballistic-diffusive thermal transport Xu, Yong; Wang, Jian-Sheng; Duan, Wenhui Physical Review B, Vol. 78, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.224303	journal	December 2008
Electron interaction-driven insulating ground state in Bi 2 Se 3 topological insulators in the two-dimensional limit Liu, Minhao; Chang, Cui-Zu; Zhang, Zuocheng Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.165440	journal	April 2011
Disentangling the magnetoelectric and thermoelectric transport in topological insulator thin films Zhang, Jinsong; Feng, Xiao; Xu, Yong Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.075431	journal	February 2015
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple Perdew, John P.; Burke, Kieron; Ernzerhof, Matthias Physical Review Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 18, p. 3865-3868 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3865	journal	October 1996
Cooling, Heating, Generating Power, and Recovering Waste Heat with Thermoelectric Systems Bell, L. E. Science, Vol. 321, Issue 5895, p. 1457-1461 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158899	journal	September 2008
Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States Heremans, J. P.; Jovovic, V.; Toberer, E. S. Science, Vol. 321, Issue 5888, p. 554-557 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1159725	journal	July 2008
Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator, Bi₂Te₃ Chen, Y. L.; Analytis, J. G.; Chu, J.-H. Science, Vol. 325, Issue 5937, p. 178-181 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1173034	journal	June 2009
Thermoelectric Cooling and Power Generation DiSalvo, F. J. Science, Vol. 285, Issue 5428, p. 703-706 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.285.5428.703	journal	July 1999

Cited By (13)

Effect of impurity resonant states on optical and thermoelectric properties on the surface of a topological insulator Zhong, Min; Li, Shuai; Duan, Hou-Jian Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-04360-x	journal	June 2017
The effect of substrate and surface plasmons on symmetry breaking at the substrate interface of the topological insulator Bi2Te3 Wiesner, Maciej; Roberts, Richard H.; Lin, Jung-Fu. Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42598-9	journal	April 2019
Surface structure promoted high-yield growth and magnetotransport properties of Bi2Se3 nanoribbons Kunakova, Gunta; Meija, Raimonds; Andzane, Jana Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47547-0	journal	August 2019
Thermoelectric Properties of Topological Insulators Ivanov, Yuri V.; Burkov, Alexander T.; Pshenay-Severin, Dmitry A. physica status solidi (b), Vol. 255, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.201800020	journal	April 2018
Thermal Engineering in Low-Dimensional Quantum Devices: A Tutorial Review of Nonequilibrium Green's Function Methods Chen, Xiaobin; Liu, Yizhou; Duan, Wenhui Small Methods, Vol. 2, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.201700343	journal	April 2018
Topological insulators for thermoelectrics Xu, Ning; Xu, Yong; Zhu, Jia npj Quantum Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0054-3	journal	September 2017
Highly-efficient thermoelectric pn-junction device based on bismuth telluride (Bi ₂ Te ₃ ) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS ₂ ) thin films fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering technique Kogo, Gilbert; Lee, Harold; Ibrahim, Adem H. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5046686	journal	October 2018
Temperature dependent Raman of BiTe nanotubes Zhou, Fang; Zhao, Yujing; Zhou, Weichang AIP Advances, Vol. 8, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055589	journal	December 2018
Observation of optical absorption correlated with surface state of topological insulator Jeon, Jiwon; Yu, Kwangnam; Kim, Jiho Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.195110	journal	November 2019
Helicity-dependent photocurrent of the top and bottom Dirac surface states of epitaxial thin films of three-dimensional topological insulators Sb 2 Te 3 Yu, Jinling; Zhu, Kejing; Zeng, Xiaolin Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.235108	journal	December 2019
Temperature-Dependent Raman Scattering of Large Size Hexagonal Bi2Se3 Single-Crystal Nanoplates Zhou, Fang; Zhao, Yujing; Zhou, Weichang Applied Sciences, Vol. 8, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.3390/app8101794	journal	October 2018
Thermal engineering in low-dimensional quantum devices: a tutorial review of nonequilibrium Green's function methods Chen, Xiaobin; Liu, Yizhou; Duan, Wenhui arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1804.05314	text	January 2018
Observation of optical absorption correlated with surface state of topological insulator Jeon, Jiwon; Yu, Kwangnam; Kim, Jiho arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1911.02968	text	January 2019

Similar Records

Origins of enhanced thermoelectric power factor in topologically insulating Bi{sub 0.64}Sb{sub 1.36}Te{sub 3} thin films

Journal Article · Sun Jan 24 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:22489381

Origins of enhanced thermoelectric power factor in topologically insulating Bi_0.64Sb_1.36Te₃ thin films

Journal Article · Sun Jan 24 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1370100

Thermoelectric properties of topological insulator Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}, Sb{sub 2}Te{sub 3}, and Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} thin film quantum wells

Journal Article · Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:22350765

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Seebeck coefficient
thermoelectricity
topological insulator
transport