Giant Peltier Effect in a Submicron-Sized Cu-Ni/Au Junction with Nanometer-Scale Phase Separation

We observed a giant Peltier effect in a submicron Cu-Ni/Au junction. The Peltier coefficient was evaluated to be 480 mV at room temperature from the balance between Joule heating and the Peltier cooling effect in the junction, which is 40 times that expected from the Seebeck coefficients of bulk Au and Cu-Ni alloy. This giant cooling effect lowered the inner temperature of the junction by 160 K. Microstructure analysis with a three-dimensional atom probe suggested that the giant Peltier effect possibly originated from nanometer-scale phase separation in the Cu-Ni layer. (C) 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics