Thermoelectric Properties of Bismuth Micro/Nanowire Array Elements Pressured into a Quartz Template Mold

A quartz template having a length of several millimeters and with holes having diameters on the order of micro/nanometers was fabricated. Bismuth was injected into the template holes by high-pressure injection. A bismuth micro/nanowire array sample was prepared, and the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient and the resistance were measured in the temperature range of 50 K to 300 K. Although the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient is similar to that of polycrystalline bulk bismuth, the temperature coefficient of the resistance is much less than that of the bulk sample. The magnetic-field dependence of the Seebeck coefficient was also measured. The Umkehr effect was observed, demonstrating that the mixed micro/nanowires are a bundle of single-crystal wires. The magnitude of the absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient was found to be large in high magnetic field and at low temperature.