Issue 3, 2021

Low temperature CVD of thermoelectric SnTe thin films from the single source precursor, [nBu3Sn(TenBu)]

Abstract

This work has demonstrated that the single source precursor [nBu3Sn(TenBu)], bearing n-butyl groups and containing the necessary 1 : 1 Sn : Te ratio, facilitates growth of continuous, stoichiometric SnTe thin films. This single source CVD precursor allows film growth at significantly lower temperatures (355–434 °C at 0.01–0.05 Torr) than required for CVD from SnTe powder. This could be advantageous for controlling the surface states in topological insulators. The temperature-dependent thermoelectric performance of these films has been determined, revealing them to be p-type semiconductors with peak Seebeck coefficient and power factor values of 78 μV K−1 and 8.3 μW K−2 cm-1, respectively, at 615 K; comparing favourably with data from bulk SnTe. Further, we have demonstrated that the precursor facilitates area selective growth of SnTe onto the TiN regions of SiO2/TiN patterned substrates, which is expected to be beneficial for the fabrication of micro-thermoelectric generators.

Graphical abstract: Low temperature CVD of thermoelectric SnTe thin films from the single source precursor, [nBu3Sn(TenBu)]

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Nov. 2020
Accepted
14 Dec. 2020
First published
16 Dec. 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Dalton Trans., 2021,50, 998-1006

Low temperature CVD of thermoelectric SnTe thin films from the single source precursor, [nBu3Sn(TenBu)]

F. Robinson, D. W. Newbrook, P. Curran, C. H. (. de Groot, D. Hardie, A. L. Hector, R. Huang and G. Reid, Dalton Trans., 2021, 50, 998 DOI: 10.1039/D0DT03760E

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