Highly Effective GeNi Alloy Contact Diffusion Barrier for BiSbTe Long-Term Thermal Exposure

Song, Erdong; Swartzentruber, Brian S.; Koripella, Chowdary R.; Martinez, Julio A.

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b00551

Highly Effective GeNi Alloy Contact Diffusion Barrier for BiSbTe Long-Term Thermal Exposure

Journal Article · Wed May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · ACS Omega

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b00551· OSTI ID:1618093

Song, Erdong ^[1]; Swartzentruber, Brian S. ^[2]; Koripella, Chowdary R. ^[2]; ^[3]

New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
City Univ. of New York (CUNY), Bronx, NY (United States)

A GeNi alloy diffusion barrier for contacts on bismuth antimony telluride is proposed. Multiple gold contact diffusion barriers were tested at different thermal aging conditions in air and reducing atmospheres. Among all diffusion barriers, the GeNi alloy barrier shows the best performance for bulk samples with no substantial degradation of the contact resistance, no contact color change, and no change of thermoelectric properties. We observed D_Au–GeNi = (9.8 ± 2.7) × 10^–20 m²/s within the GeNi alloy barrier, which is 4 times smaller than D_Au–BiSbTe. The presence of the initial Ge layer also proves to be effective in reducing nickel diffusion yielding D_Ni–BiSbTe = (8.57 ± 0.49) × 10^–19 m²/s. During GeNi alloy formation, Ge diffusion into BiSbTe produces GeTe, which apparently blocks the van der Waals gaps eliminating Au and Ni fast diffusion pathways. Thermal aging of BiSbTe nanowires shows that Au and Ni diffusion degrades the thermoelectric power factor, whereas the GeNi alloy barrier sample is mostly preserved. The GeNi alloy barrier is a reliable solution to long-term thermal applications of BiTe-based materials.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 1618093

Report Number(s):: SAND--2019-1645J; 672587

Journal Information:: ACS Omega, Journal Name: ACS Omega Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 4; ISSN 2470-1343

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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