Giant Seebeck effect in pure fullerene thin films

The small thermal conductivity of molecular solids is beneficial for their thermoelectric applications. If Seebeck coefficients were sufficiently large to compensate for the relatively small electrical conductivity, these materials would be promising candidates for thermoelectric devices. In this work, the thermoelectric properties of C-60 were studied by in situ measurements under ultrahigh vacuum after the deposition of a pure C-60 thin film. An exceptionally large Seebeck coefficient of more than 150mV/K was observed as a steady-state thermoelectromotive force. Even considering several extreme but realistic conditions, conventional semiclassical thermoelectric theories cannot explain this giant Seebeck effect. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics