Holey Silicon as an Efficient Thermoelectric Material

Journal Article · Thu Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/nl102931z· OSTI ID:1011104

Tang, Jinyao; Wang, Hung-Ta; Hyun Lee, Dong; Fardy, Melissa; Huo, Ziyang; Russell, Thomas P; Yang, Peidong

This work investigated the thermoelectric properties of thin silicon membranes that have been decorated with high density of nanoscopic holes. These ?holey silicon? (HS) structures were fabricated by either nanosphere or block-copolymer lithography, both of which are scalable for practical device application. By reducing the pitch of the hexagonal holey pattern down to 55 nm with 35percent porosity, the thermal conductivity of HS is consistently reduced by 2 orders of magnitude and approaches the amorphous limit. With a ZT value of 0.4 at room temperature, the thermoelectric performance of HS is comparable with the best value recorded in silicon nanowire system.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Materials Sciences Division
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1011104
• Report Number(s): LBNL-4401E; TRN: US201109%%209
• Journal Information: Nano Letters, Vol. 10.1021/nl102931Z, Issue Nano Letters 2010,10; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: 09/14/2010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
MEMBRANES
PERFORMANCE
POROSITY
SILICON
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS
THERMOELECTRIC PROPERTIES
Silicon
Thermoelectric
Thermal Conductivity
necking
nanstructure