Correlating thermoelectric properties with microstructure in Bi 0.8 Sb 0.2 thin films
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The room temperature electronic transport properties of 100 nm-thick thermoelectric Bi0.8Sb0.2 films, sputter-deposited onto quartz substrates and post-annealed in an ex-situ furnace, systematically correlate with the overall microstructural quality, improving with increasing annealing temperature until close to the melting point for the alloy composition. Furthermore, the optimized films have high crystalline quality with ~99% of the grains oriented with the trigonal axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. Film resistivities and Seebeck coefficients are accurately measured by preventing deleterious surface oxide formation via a SiN capping layer and using Nd-doped Al for contacts. Our resulting values are similar to single crystals and significantly better than previous reports from films and polycrystalline bulk alloys.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1357018
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2017-0986J; 650830
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 14; ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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