Data analysis for Seebeck coefficient measurements

The Seebeck coefficient is one of the key quantities of thermoelectric materials and routinely measured in various laboratories. There are, however, several ways to calculate the Seebeck coefficient from the raw measurement data. We compare these different ways to extract the Seebeck coefficient, evaluate the accuracy of the results, and show methods to increase this accuracy. We furthermore point out experimental and data analysis parameters that can be used to evaluate the trustworthiness of the obtained result. The shown analysis can be used to find and minimize errors in the Seebeck coefficient measurement and therefore increase the reliability of the measured material properties. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.