Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS
Volume 51, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aaac1c
Keywords
thermoelectric efficiency; thermal conductivity; nanowires; modulated nanostructures
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Width-modulated nanowires have been proposed as efficient thermoelectric materials. Here, the electron and phonon transport properties and the thermoelectric efficiency are discussed for dimensions above the quantum confinement regime. The thermal conductivity decreases dramatically in the presence of thin constrictions due to their ballistic thermal resistance. It shows a scaling behavior upon the width-modulation rate that allows for thermal conductivity engineering. The electron conductivity also decreases due to enhanced boundary scattering by the constrictions. The effect of boundary scattering is weaker for electrons than for phonons and the overall thermoelectric efficiency is enhanced. A ZT enhancement by a factor of 20-30 is predicted for width-modulated nanowires compared to bulk silicon. Our findings indicate that width-modulated nanostructures are promising for developing silicon nanostructures with high thermoelectric efficiency.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available