Issue 43, 2018

Highly (00l)-oriented Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure thin films with enhanced power factor

Abstract

Introducing nanoscale heterostructure interfaces into material matrix is an effective strategy to optimize the thermoelectric performance by energy-dependent carrier filtering effect. In this study, highly (00l)-oriented Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure thin films have been fabricated on single-crystal MgO substrates using a facile magnetron co-sputtering method. Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure thin films with Te contents of 63.8 at% show an optimized thermoelectric performance, which possess a Seebeck coefficient of −157.7 μV K−1 and an electrical conductivity of 9.72 × 104 S m−1, leading to a high power factor approaching 25 μW cm−1 K−2. The partially decoupled behavior of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity is contributed to Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure interfaces, which causes interfacial barrier filtering and scattering effects; thus, a high level of the Seebeck coefficient is obtained. Meanwhile, carrier transport in ab plane can benefit from the highly preferred orientation, which guarantees a remarkably high electrical conductivity. We anticipate that our strategy may guide the way for preparing high-performance thermoelectric materials by microstructure design and regulation.

Graphical abstract: Highly (00l)-oriented Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure thin films with enhanced power factor

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Sep 2018
Accepted
17 Oct 2018
First published
18 Oct 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 20189-20195

Highly (00l)-oriented Bi2Te3/Te heterostructure thin films with enhanced power factor

H. Shang, F. Ding, Y. Deng, H. Zhang, Z. Dong, W. Xu, D. Huang, H. Gu and Z. Chen, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 20189 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR07112H

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