Work

Importance of Schottky barriers for wide-bandgap thermoelectric devices

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: The development of thermoelectric devices faces not only the challenge of optimizing the Seebeck coefficient, the electrical and thermal conductivity of the active material, but also further bottlenecks when going from the thermoelectric material to an actual device, e.g., the dopant diffusion at the hot contact. We show that for large bandgap thermoelectrics another aspect can dramatically reduce the efficiency of the device: the formation of Schottky barriers. Understanding the effect, it can then be fixed rather cheaply by a two-metal contact solution.

Source: Physical Review Materials

DOI: 10.1103/physrevmaterials.2.045402

Authors: M. Wais, K. Held, M. Battiato

Institutions: TU Wien, Nanyang Technological University

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Nanyang Technological University, Austrian Science Fund, European Research Council