Issue 36, 2020, Issue in Progress

Drastic power factor improvement by Te doping of rare earth-free CoSb3-skutterudite thin films

Abstract

In the present study, we have focused on the elaboration of control of Te-doped CoSb3 thin films by RF magnetron sputtering which is an attractive technique for industrial development of thermoelectric (TE) thin films. We have successfully synthesized sputtering targets with a reliable approach in order to obtain high-quality films with controlled stoichiometry. TE properties were then probed and revealed a reliable n-type behavior characterized by poor electrical transport properties. Tellurium substitution was realized by co-sputtering deposition and allowed obtaining a significant enhancement of the power factor with promising values of PF ≈ 0.21 mW m−1 K−2 near room temperature. It is related to the Te doping effect which leads to an increase of the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity simultaneously. However, despite this large improvement, the properties remained far from the bulk material and further developments are necessary to improve the carrier mobility reduced by the thin film formatting.

Graphical abstract: Drastic power factor improvement by Te doping of rare earth-free CoSb3-skutterudite thin films

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Mar 2020
Accepted
25 May 2020
First published
03 Jun 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 21129-21135

Drastic power factor improvement by Te doping of rare earth-free CoSb3-skutterudite thin films

C. Bourgès, N. Sato, T. Baba, T. Baba, I. Ohkubo, N. Tsujii and T. Mori, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 21129 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02699A

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