Thermoelectric Power Factor Limit of a 1D Nanowire
Chen, I. Ju LU ; Burke, Adam LU
; Svilans, Artis
LU
; Linke, Heiner
LU
and Thelander, Claes
LU
(2018)
In Physical Review Letters
120(17).
- Abstract
In the past decade, there has been significant interest in the potentially advantageous thermoelectric properties of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, but it has been challenging to find high thermoelectric power factors based on 1D effects in practice. Here we point out that there is an upper limit to the thermoelectric power factor of nonballistic 1D nanowires, as a consequence of the recently established quantum bound of thermoelectric power output. We experimentally test this limit in quasiballistic InAs nanowires by extracting the maximum power factor of the first 1D subband through I-V characterization, finding that the measured maximum power factors conform to the theoretical limit. The established limit allows the prediction of... (More)
In the past decade, there has been significant interest in the potentially advantageous thermoelectric properties of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, but it has been challenging to find high thermoelectric power factors based on 1D effects in practice. Here we point out that there is an upper limit to the thermoelectric power factor of nonballistic 1D nanowires, as a consequence of the recently established quantum bound of thermoelectric power output. We experimentally test this limit in quasiballistic InAs nanowires by extracting the maximum power factor of the first 1D subband through I-V characterization, finding that the measured maximum power factors conform to the theoretical limit. The established limit allows the prediction of the achievable power factor of a specific nanowire material system with 1D electronic transport based on the nanowire dimension and mean free path. The power factor of state-of-the-art semiconductor nanowires with small cross section and high crystal quality can be expected to be highly competitive (on the order of mW/m K2) at low temperatures. However, they have no clear advantage over bulk materials at, or above, room temperature.
(Less)
- author
- Chen, I. Ju
LU
; Burke, Adam
LU
; Svilans, Artis
LU
; Linke, Heiner
LU
and Thelander, Claes
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-04-24
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Physical Review Letters
- volume
- 120
- issue
- 17
- article number
- 177703
- publisher
- American Physical Society
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85046299488
- pmid:29756845
- ISSN
- 0031-9007
- DOI
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.177703
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f5b7257f-91f4-45f9-960b-f14edd96532c
- date added to LUP
- 2018-05-18 13:03:13
- date last changed
- 2024-06-11 15:24:10
@article{f5b7257f-91f4-45f9-960b-f14edd96532c,
abstract = {{<p>In the past decade, there has been significant interest in the potentially advantageous thermoelectric properties of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, but it has been challenging to find high thermoelectric power factors based on 1D effects in practice. Here we point out that there is an upper limit to the thermoelectric power factor of nonballistic 1D nanowires, as a consequence of the recently established quantum bound of thermoelectric power output. We experimentally test this limit in quasiballistic InAs nanowires by extracting the maximum power factor of the first 1D subband through I-V characterization, finding that the measured maximum power factors conform to the theoretical limit. The established limit allows the prediction of the achievable power factor of a specific nanowire material system with 1D electronic transport based on the nanowire dimension and mean free path. The power factor of state-of-the-art semiconductor nanowires with small cross section and high crystal quality can be expected to be highly competitive (on the order of mW/m K2) at low temperatures. However, they have no clear advantage over bulk materials at, or above, room temperature.</p>}},
author = {{Chen, I. Ju and Burke, Adam and Svilans, Artis and Linke, Heiner and Thelander, Claes}},
issn = {{0031-9007}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{17}},
publisher = {{American Physical Society}},
series = {{Physical Review Letters}},
title = {{Thermoelectric Power Factor Limit of a 1D Nanowire}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.177703}},
doi = {{10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.177703}},
volume = {{120}},
year = {{2018}},
}