Giant Seebeck effect in Ge-doped SnSe.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gharsallah M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4890000 | biostudies-other | 2016
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Similar Datasets
Project description:Due to their inherent physical properties, thin-film Si/SiGe heterostructures have specific thermal management applications in advanced integrated circuits and this in turn is essential not only to prevent a high local temperature and overheat inside the circuit, but also generate electricity through the Seebeck effect. Here, we were able to enhance the Seebeck effect in the germanium composite quantum dots (CQDs) embedded in silicon by increasing the number of thin silicon layers inside the dot (multi-fold CQD material). The Seebeck effect in the CQD structures and multi-layer boron atomic layer-doped SiGe epitaxial films was studied experimentally at temperatures in the range from 50 to 300 K and detailed calculations for the Seebeck coefficient employing different scattering mechanisms were made. Our results show that the Seebeck coefficient is enhanced up to ≈40% in a 3-fold CQD material with respect to 2-fold Ge/Si CQDs. This enhancement was precisely modeled by taking into account the scattering of phonons by inner boundaries and the carrier filtering by the CQD inclusions. Our model is also able to reproduce the observed temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient in the B atomic layer-doped SiGe fairly well. We expect that the phonon scattering techniques developed here could significantly improve the thermoelectric performance of Ge/Si materials through further optimization of the layer stacks inside the quantum dot and of the dopant concentrations.
| S-EPMC6841935 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Silicon-based photonics is now considered as the photonic platform for the next generation of on-chip communications. However, the development of compact and low power consumption optical modulators is still challenging. Here we report a giant electro-optic effect in Ge/SiGe coupled quantum wells. This promising effect is based on an anomalous quantum-confined Stark effect due to the separate confinement of electrons and holes in the Ge/SiGe coupled quantum wells. This phenomenon can be exploited to strongly enhance optical modulator performance with respect to the standard approaches developed so far in silicon photonics. We have measured a refractive index variation up to 2.3 × 10(-3) under a bias voltage of 1.5 V, with an associated modulation efficiency V(π)L(π) of 0.046 V cm. This demonstration paves the way for the development of efficient and high-speed phase modulators based on the Ge/SiGe material system.
| S-EPMC4609994 | biostudies-other
Project description:Semiconducting SnSe, an analog of black phosphorus, recently attracted great scientific interest due to a disputed report of a large thermoelectric figure of merit, which has not been reproduced subsequently. Here we concentrate on the low-temperature ground state. To gain a better understanding of the system, we present magneto-transport properties in high-quality single crystals of as-grown, lightly doped SnSe down to liquid helium temperatures. We show that SnSe behaves as a p-type doped semiconductor in the vicinity of a metal-insulator transition. Electronic transport at the lowest temperatures is dominated by the hopping mechanism. Negative magnetoresistance at low fields is well described by antilocalization, while positive magnetoresistance at higher fields is consistent with the shrinkage of localized impurity wavefunctions. At higher temperatures, a dilute metallic regime is realized where elusive T2 and B2 resistivity dependence is observed, posing a challenge to theoretical comprehension of the underlying physical mechanism.
| S-EPMC10095749 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The most widespread cooling techniques based on gas compression/expansion encounter environmental problems. Thus, tremendous effort has been dedicated to develop alternative cooling technique and search for solid state materials that show large caloric effects. An application of pressure to a material can cause a change in temperature, which is called the barocaloric effect. Here we report the giant barocaloric effect in a hexagonal Ni2In-type MnCoGe0.99In0.01 compound involving magnetostructural transformation, Tmstr, which is accompanied with a big difference in the internal energy due to a great negative lattice expansion(?V/V?~?3.9%). High resolution neutron diffraction experiments reveal that the hydrostatic pressure can push the Tmstr to a lower temperature at a rate of 7.7?K/kbar, resulting in a giant barocaloric effect. The entropy change under a moderate pressure of 3?kbar reaches 52?J kg(-1) K(-1), which exceeds that of most materials, including the reported giant magnetocaloric effect driven by 5?T magnetic field that is available only by superconducting magnets.
| S-EPMC4682185 | biostudies-literature
Project description:?: We report on the successful preparation of Bi-doped n-type polycrystalline SnSe by hot-press method. We observed anisotropic transport properties due to the (h00) preferred orientation of grains along the pressing direction. The electrical conductivity perpendicular to the pressing direction is higher than that parallel to the pressing direction, 12.85 and 6.46 S cm-1 at 773 K for SnSe:Bi 8% sample, respectively, while thermal conductivity perpendicular to the pressing direction is higher than that parallel to the pressing direction, 0.81 and 0.60 W m-1 K-1 at 773 K for SnSe:Bi 8% sample, respectively. We observed a bipolar conducting mechanism in our samples leading to n- to p-type transition, whose transition temperature increases with Bi concentration. Our work addressed a possibility to dope polycrystalline SnSe by a hot-pressing process, which may be applied to module applications. HIGHLIGHTS:1. We have successfully achieved Bi-doped n-type polycrystalline SnSe by the hot-press method. 2. We observed anisotropic transport properties due to the [h00] preferred orientation of grains along pressing direction. 3. We observed a bipolar conducting mechanism in our samples leading to n- to p-type transition.
| S-EPMC6035122 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The spin Seebeck effect, the generation of a spin current by a temperature gradient, has attracted great attention, but the interplay over a millimetre range along a thin ferromagnetic film as well as unintended side effects which hinder an unambiguous detection have evoked controversial discussions. Here, we investigate the inverse spin Hall voltage of a 10 nm thin Pt strip deposited on the magnetic insulators Y3Fe5O12 and NiFe2O4 with a temperature gradient in the film plane. We show characteristics typical of the spin Seebeck effect, although we do not observe the most striking features of the transverse spin Seebeck effect. Instead, we attribute the observed voltages to the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect generated by a contact tip induced parasitic out-of-plane temperature gradient, which depends on material, diameter and temperature of the tip.
| S-EPMC4598359 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Thermoelectric effects have been applied to power generators and temperature sensors that convert waste heat into electricity. The effects, however, have been limited to electrons to occur, and inevitably disappear at low temperatures due to electronic entropy quenching. Here, we report thermoelectric generation caused by nuclear spins in a solid: nuclear-spin Seebeck effect. The sample is a magnetically ordered material MnCO3 having a large nuclear spin (I = 5/2) of 55Mn nuclei and strong hyperfine coupling, with a Pt contact. In the system, we observe low-temperature thermoelectric signals down to 100 mK due to nuclear-spin excitation. Our theoretical calculation in which interfacial Korringa process is taken into consideration quantitatively reproduces the results. The nuclear thermoelectric effect demonstrated here offers a way for exploring thermoelectric science and technologies at ultralow temperatures.
| S-EPMC8285541 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Seebeck effect describes the generation of an electric potential in a conducting solid exposed to a temperature gradient. In most cases, it is dominated by an energy-dependent electronic density of states at the Fermi level, in line with the prevalent efforts towards superior thermoelectrics through the engineering of electronic structure. Here we demonstrate an alternative source for the Seebeck effect based on charge-carrier relaxation: a charge mobility that changes rapidly with temperature can result in a sizeable addition to the Seebeck coefficient. This new Seebeck source is demonstrated explicitly for Ni-doped CoSb3, where a marked mobility change occurs due to the crossover between two different charge-relaxation regimes. Our findings unveil the origin of pronounced features in the Seebeck coefficient of many other elusive materials characterized by a significant mobility mismatch. When utilized appropriately, this effect can also provide a novel route to the design of improved thermoelectric materials.
| S-EPMC4491185 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Materials that can efficiently convert heat into electricity are widely utilized in energy conversion technologies. The existing thermoelectrics demonstrate rather limited performance characteristics at room temperature, and hence, alternative materials and approaches are very much in demand. Here, it is experimentally shown that manipulating an applied stress can greatly improve a thermoelectric power factor of layered p-type SnSe single crystals up to ≈180 µW K-2 cm-1 at room temperature. This giant enhancement is explained by a synergetic effect of three factors, such as: band-gap narrowing, Lifshitz transition, and strong sample deformation. Under applied pressure above 1 GPa, the SnSe crystals become more ductile, which can be related to changes in the prevailing chemical bonding type inside the layers, from covalent toward metavalent. Thus, the SnSe single crystals transform into a highly unconventional crystalline state in which their layered crystal stacking is largely preserved, while the layers themselves are strongly deformed. This results in a dramatic narrowing in a band gap, from Eg = 0.83 to 0.50 eV (at ambient conditions). Thus, the work demonstrates a novel strategy of improving the performance parameters of chalcogenide thermoelectrics via tuning their chemical bonding type, stimulating a sample deformation and a band-structure reconstruction.
| S-EPMC9284162 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recently SnSe, a layered chalcogenide material, has attracted a great deal of attention for its excellent p-type thermoelectric property showing a remarkable ZT value of 2.6 at 923?K. For thermoelectric device applications, it is necessary to have n-type materials with comparable ZT value. Here, we report that n-type SnSe single crystals were successfully synthesized by substituting Bi at Sn sites. In addition, it was found that the carrier concentration increases with Bi content, which has a great influence on the thermoelectric properties of n-type SnSe single crystals. Indeed, we achieved the maximum ZT value of 2.2 along b axis at 733?K in the most highly doped n-type SnSe with a carrier density of -2.1 × 1019?cm-3 at 773?K.
| S-EPMC5160008 | biostudies-other