Enhanced Peltier Effect in Wrinkled Graphene Constriction by Nano-Bubble Engineering

Inspired by the promising applications in thermopower generation from waste heat and active on-chip cooling, the thermoelectric and electrothermal properties of graphene have been extensively pursued by seeking ingeniously designed structures with thermoelectric conversion capability. The graphene wrinkle is a ubiquitous structure formed inevitably during the synthesis of large-scale graphene films but the corresponding properties for thermoelectric and electrothermal applications are rarely investigated. Here, the electrothermal Peltier effect from the graphene wrinkle fabricated on a germanium substrate is reported. Peltier cooling and heating across the wrinkle are visualized unambiguously with polarities consistent with p-type doping and in accordance with the wrinkle spatial distribution. By direct patterning of the nano-bubble structure, the current density across the wrinkle can be boosted by current crowding to enhance the Peltier effect. The observed Peltier effect can be attributed to the nonequilibrium charge transport by interlayer tunneling across the van der Waals barrier of the graphene wrinkle. The graphene wrinkle in combination with nano-bubble engineering constitutes an innovative and agile platform to design graphene and other more general two-dimensional (2D) thermoelectrics and opens the possibility for realizing active on-chip cooling for 2D nanoelectronics with van der Waals junctions.