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Title: Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Hot-Wire and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Depositions

Abstract

We report thermoelectric measurements over a temperature range of 80 K to 300 K of heavily boron-doped nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by hot-wire and plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor depositions. The nanocrystalline silicon films were doped by either gaseous deposition precursors or post-deposition ion implantation, resulting in boron concentrations ranging from 1-2 x 1020 cm-3 to 3 x 1021 cm-3. Reasonable values of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity were obtained at 300 K, comparable to many other research work. We also report thermal conductivity measurements on these films before doping, which we use to estimate their prospective thermoelectric efficiency. These measurements show values as low as 0.76 W/mK at 300 K which depend highly upon the grain sizes of the nc-Si films. We find that post-deposition doping by ion-implantation is more effective at enhancing the power factor than gaseous doping, and the power factor is only weakly dependent upon doping concentration for the films doped by ion implantation. We conclude that improvements of the thermoelectric efficiency of nc-Si films may depend more on a reduction of their thermal conductivity than doping optimization. The small grain sizes and the low thermal conductivity of the undoped nc-Si films accomplished in this work are thereforemore » encouraging developments.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. KeyW Corporation, Hanover, MD (United States)
  2. Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
OSTI Identifier:
1557401
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-74562
Journal ID: ISSN 0361-5235
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Electronic Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 48; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 0361-5235
Publisher:
Springer
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; thermoelectric; power factor; thermal conductivity; nanocrystalline silicon; chemical-vapor deposition; ion-implantation

Citation Formats

Jugdersuren, Battogtokh, Kearney, Brian T., Liu, Xiao, Stroud, Rhonda M., Culbertson, James C., Desario, Paul A., Nemeth, William M., and Wang, Qi. Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Hot-Wire and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Depositions. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1007/s11664-019-07262-y.
Jugdersuren, Battogtokh, Kearney, Brian T., Liu, Xiao, Stroud, Rhonda M., Culbertson, James C., Desario, Paul A., Nemeth, William M., & Wang, Qi. Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Hot-Wire and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Depositions. United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-019-07262-y
Jugdersuren, Battogtokh, Kearney, Brian T., Liu, Xiao, Stroud, Rhonda M., Culbertson, James C., Desario, Paul A., Nemeth, William M., and Wang, Qi. Tue . "Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Hot-Wire and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Depositions". United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-019-07262-y. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1557401.
@article{osti_1557401,
title = {Thermoelectric Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Hot-Wire and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Depositions},
author = {Jugdersuren, Battogtokh and Kearney, Brian T. and Liu, Xiao and Stroud, Rhonda M. and Culbertson, James C. and Desario, Paul A. and Nemeth, William M. and Wang, Qi},
abstractNote = {We report thermoelectric measurements over a temperature range of 80 K to 300 K of heavily boron-doped nanocrystalline silicon films prepared by hot-wire and plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor depositions. The nanocrystalline silicon films were doped by either gaseous deposition precursors or post-deposition ion implantation, resulting in boron concentrations ranging from 1-2 x 1020 cm-3 to 3 x 1021 cm-3. Reasonable values of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity were obtained at 300 K, comparable to many other research work. We also report thermal conductivity measurements on these films before doping, which we use to estimate their prospective thermoelectric efficiency. These measurements show values as low as 0.76 W/mK at 300 K which depend highly upon the grain sizes of the nc-Si films. We find that post-deposition doping by ion-implantation is more effective at enhancing the power factor than gaseous doping, and the power factor is only weakly dependent upon doping concentration for the films doped by ion implantation. We conclude that improvements of the thermoelectric efficiency of nc-Si films may depend more on a reduction of their thermal conductivity than doping optimization. The small grain sizes and the low thermal conductivity of the undoped nc-Si films accomplished in this work are therefore encouraging developments.},
doi = {10.1007/s11664-019-07262-y},
journal = {Journal of Electronic Materials},
number = 8,
volume = 48,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Tue Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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