Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanoplates via atomic layer deposition-based surface passivation

Chen, Jihan; Kim, Jaehyun; Poudel, Nirakar; Hou, Bingya; Shen, Lang; Shi, Haotian; Shi, Li; Cronin, Stephen

doi:10.1063/1.5030674

Title: Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ nanoplates via atomic layer deposition-based surface passivation

Journal Article · Wed Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5030674· OSTI ID:1510945

Chen, Jihan ^[1];

^[2]; Poudel, Nirakar ^[1]; Hou, Bingya ^[1];

^[3]; Shi, Haotian ^[4];

^[2];

^[5]

Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Ming Hsieh Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Texas Materials Inst.
Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Mork Family Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Ming Hsieh Dept. of Electrical Engineering. Dept. of Chemistry. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

We report in-plane thermoelectric measurements of Bi₂Te₃ nanoplates, a typical topological insulator with Dirac-like metallic surface states, grown by chemical vapor deposition. The as-grown flakes exposed to ambient conditions exhibit relatively small thermopowers around -34 μV/K due to unintentional surface doping (e.g., gas adsorption and surface oxidation). After removal of the unintentional surface doping and surface passivation by deposition of 30 nm of Al₂O₃ using atomic layer deposition (ALD), the Seebeck coefficient of these flakes increases by a factor of 5× to -169 μV/K. We believe that the ALD-based surface passivation can prevent the degradation of the thermoelectric properties caused by gas adsorption and surface oxidation processes, thus, reducing the unintentional doping in the Bi₂Te₃ and increasing the Seebeck coefficient. The high surface-to-volume ratio of these thin (~10 nm thick) nanoplates make them especially sensitive to surface doping, which is a common problem among nanomaterials in general. An increase in the sample resistance is also observed after the ALD process, which is consistent with the decrease in doping.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46376; FG02-07ER46377; 1402906

OSTI ID:: 1510945

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1465902

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 8; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 10 works

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Title: Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanoplates via atomic layer deposition-based surface passivation

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Title: Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ nanoplates via atomic layer deposition-based surface passivation