Thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3 atomic quintuple thin films
- 22 November 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 97 (21), 212102
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3518078
Abstract
Motivated by recent experimental realizations of quintuple atomic layer films of Bi2Te3, the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of the quintuple layer is calculated and found to increase by a factor of 10 (ZT=7.15) compared to that of the bulk at room-temperature. The large enhancement in ZT results from the change in the distribution of the valence band density of modes brought about by the quantum confinement in the thin film. The theoretical model uses ab initio electronic structure calculations (VASP) with full quantum-mechanical structure relaxation combined with a Landauer formalism for the linear-response transport coefficients.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Large thermoelectric figure of merit for three-dimensional topological Anderson insulators via line dislocation engineeringApplied Physics Letters, 2010
- Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of StatesScience, 2008
- A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phaseNature, 2008
- Topological Insulators in Three DimensionsPhysical Review Letters, 2007
- Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of meritNature, 2001
- Thermoelectric Cooling and Power GenerationScience, 1999
- Effect of phonon confinement on the thermoelectric figure of merit of quantum wellsJournal of Applied Physics, 1998
- Significant decrease of the lattice thermal conductivity due to phonon confinement in a free-standing semiconductor quantum wellPhysical Review B, 1998
- Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of meritPhysical Review B, 1993
- Thermoelectric RefrigerationPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1964