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Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition

Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition
Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition
Thermoelectric generators are attractive for autonomous sensor systems where regular battery replacement would not only cause an increase in the maintenance costs and discontinuity in the operation, but also destroy the concept of a truly autonomous system. Micro-thermoelectric generators utilise thin films of material for energy harvesting which can greatly reduce the amount of material used, which is especially important for rare elements such as tellurium. Thin films of Bi2Te3 were successfully prepared via a single source precursor CVD method. The thermoelectric performance of these films is improved by alloying a Bi2Se3 precursor to deposit ternary Bi2Te3-xSex. The composition of the ternary system is tuned to optimise the combination of carrier concentration and mobility to give a three-fold enhancement of the thermoelectric power factor at 300 K, and six-fold enhancement at 500 K, with respect to Bi2Te3. This improvement from the substitution of Te with Se is believed to be due to donor effects, as well as point defects caused by this substitution.
Chemical vapour deposition, Point defect, Thermoelectric, Thin films
0925-8388
Newbrook, Daniel W
8eb26553-e1e2-492d-ad78-ce51a487f31f
Richards, Stephen P
ebe5e699-553f-408b-ab9d-d20270e952c1
Greenacre, Victoria
c665a38b-0b1a-4671-ac75-bf0679dd1c57
Hector, Andrew L.
f19a8f31-b37f-4474-b32a-b7cf05b9f0e5
Levason, William
e7f6d7c7-643c-49f5-8b57-0ebbe1bb52cd
Reid, Gillian
37d35b11-40ce-48c5-a68e-f6ce04cd4037
De Groot, C.H.
92cd2e02-fcc4-43da-8816-c86f966be90c
Huang, Ruomeng
c6187811-ef2f-4437-8333-595c0d6ac978
Newbrook, Daniel W
8eb26553-e1e2-492d-ad78-ce51a487f31f
Richards, Stephen P
ebe5e699-553f-408b-ab9d-d20270e952c1
Greenacre, Victoria
c665a38b-0b1a-4671-ac75-bf0679dd1c57
Hector, Andrew L.
f19a8f31-b37f-4474-b32a-b7cf05b9f0e5
Levason, William
e7f6d7c7-643c-49f5-8b57-0ebbe1bb52cd
Reid, Gillian
37d35b11-40ce-48c5-a68e-f6ce04cd4037
De Groot, C.H.
92cd2e02-fcc4-43da-8816-c86f966be90c
Huang, Ruomeng
c6187811-ef2f-4437-8333-595c0d6ac978

Newbrook, Daniel W, Richards, Stephen P, Greenacre, Victoria, Hector, Andrew L., Levason, William, Reid, Gillian, De Groot, C.H. and Huang, Ruomeng (2020) Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 848, [156523]. (doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.156523).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Thermoelectric generators are attractive for autonomous sensor systems where regular battery replacement would not only cause an increase in the maintenance costs and discontinuity in the operation, but also destroy the concept of a truly autonomous system. Micro-thermoelectric generators utilise thin films of material for energy harvesting which can greatly reduce the amount of material used, which is especially important for rare elements such as tellurium. Thin films of Bi2Te3 were successfully prepared via a single source precursor CVD method. The thermoelectric performance of these films is improved by alloying a Bi2Se3 precursor to deposit ternary Bi2Te3-xSex. The composition of the ternary system is tuned to optimise the combination of carrier concentration and mobility to give a three-fold enhancement of the thermoelectric power factor at 300 K, and six-fold enhancement at 500 K, with respect to Bi2Te3. This improvement from the substitution of Te with Se is believed to be due to donor effects, as well as point defects caused by this substitution.

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TE ternary-Accepted Version - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 23 July 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 August 2020
Published date: 25 December 2020
Keywords: Chemical vapour deposition, Point defect, Thermoelectric, Thin films

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 443441
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443441
ISSN: 0925-8388
PURE UUID: 2f5951cb-f9f7-4ec9-bba4-e3c8e0d6bc2e
ORCID for Daniel W Newbrook: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5047-6168
ORCID for Victoria Greenacre: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3381-9616
ORCID for Andrew L. Hector: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9964-2163
ORCID for William Levason: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3540-0971
ORCID for Gillian Reid: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-3468
ORCID for C.H. De Groot: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-7101
ORCID for Ruomeng Huang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1185-635X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 25 Aug 2020 16:33
Last modified: 23 Mar 2024 05:05

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Contributors

Author: Daniel W Newbrook ORCID iD
Author: Stephen P Richards
Author: Victoria Greenacre ORCID iD
Author: William Levason ORCID iD
Author: Gillian Reid ORCID iD
Author: C.H. De Groot ORCID iD
Author: Ruomeng Huang ORCID iD

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