Nanostructured Si-Ge thermoelectric material for 1200 V/W highly sensitive infrared thermopile sensor device

In this paper, we report the characteristics of a thermopile infrared sensor in which a nanostructured Si-Ge thermoelectric material is used. Although the thermopile infrared sensor is capable of being operated without power consumption, a challenge has been improving its sensitivity. With the aim of improving its sensitivity, we have realized a nanostructured Si-Ge thermoelectric material with low thermal conductivity (0.8 W/m K or less) by forming nanocrystals through heat treatment of amorphous Si-Ge. The thermopile infrared sensor composed of this material exhibited a high sensitivity of 1200 V/W at a pressure of 1.0 x 10(-1) Pa or less. (C) 2023 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0144938

Automated summary

In this paper, the characteristics of a thermopile infrared sensor using a nanostructured Si-Ge thermoelectric material are reported. Improving the sensitivity of the thermopile infrared sensor has been a challenge despite its ability to operate without power consumption. To enhance sensitivity, a nanostructured Si-Ge thermoelectric material with low thermal conductivity (0.8 W/m K or less) was created by heat treatment of amorphous Si-Ge to form nanocrystals. The thermopile infrared sensor composed of this material exhibited a high sensitivity of 1200 V/W at a pressure of 1.0 x 10(-1) Pa or less.