Abstract
penetration partly because most commercial materials employed are scarce/-
costly, environmentally unfriendly and in addition provide low conversion
efficiency. The necessity to tackle some of these hurdles leads us to investigate
the suitability of n-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (lc-Si: H) in the
fabrication of thermoelectric devices, produced by plasma enhanced chemical
vapour deposition (PECVD), which is a mature process of proven scalability.
This study reports an approach to optimise the thermoelectric power factor
(PF) by varying the dopant concentration by means of post-annealing without
impacting film morphology, at least for temperatures below 550C. Results
show an improvement in PF of more than 80%, which is driven by a noticeable
increase of carrier mobility and Seebeck coefficient in spite of a reduction in
carrier concentration. A PF of 2.08 9 104 W/mK2 at room temperature is
reported for n-type films of 1 lm thickness, which is in line with the best
values reported in recent literature for similar structures.
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 1-8 |
| Journal | Journal of Electronic Materials |
| Early online date | 30 Nov 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 30 Nov 2017 |
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Hydrogenated Nano-/Micro-Crystalline Silicon Thin-Films for Thermoelectrics. / Acosta, Edwin; Wight, Neil; Smirnov, V.; Buckman, Jim; Bennett, Nick.
In: Journal of Electronic Materials, 30.11.2017, p. 1-8.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrogenated Nano-/Micro-Crystalline Silicon Thin-Films for Thermoelectrics
AU - Acosta, Edwin
AU - Wight, Neil
AU - Smirnov, V.
AU - Buckman, Jim
AU - Bennett, Nick
PY - 2017/11/30
Y1 - 2017/11/30
N2 - Thermoelectric technology has not yet been able to reach full-scale marketpenetration partly because most commercial materials employed are scarce/-costly, environmentally unfriendly and in addition provide low conversionefficiency. The necessity to tackle some of these hurdles leads us to investigatethe suitability of n-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (lc-Si: H) in thefabrication of thermoelectric devices, produced by plasma enhanced chemicalvapour deposition (PECVD), which is a mature process of proven scalability.This study reports an approach to optimise the thermoelectric power factor(PF) by varying the dopant concentration by means of post-annealing withoutimpacting film morphology, at least for temperatures below 550C. Resultsshow an improvement in PF of more than 80%, which is driven by a noticeableincrease of carrier mobility and Seebeck coefficient in spite of a reduction incarrier concentration. A PF of 2.08 9 104 W/mK2 at room temperature isreported for n-type films of 1 lm thickness, which is in line with the bestvalues reported in recent literature for similar structures.
AB - Thermoelectric technology has not yet been able to reach full-scale marketpenetration partly because most commercial materials employed are scarce/-costly, environmentally unfriendly and in addition provide low conversionefficiency. The necessity to tackle some of these hurdles leads us to investigatethe suitability of n-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (lc-Si: H) in thefabrication of thermoelectric devices, produced by plasma enhanced chemicalvapour deposition (PECVD), which is a mature process of proven scalability.This study reports an approach to optimise the thermoelectric power factor(PF) by varying the dopant concentration by means of post-annealing withoutimpacting film morphology, at least for temperatures below 550C. Resultsshow an improvement in PF of more than 80%, which is driven by a noticeableincrease of carrier mobility and Seebeck coefficient in spite of a reduction incarrier concentration. A PF of 2.08 9 104 W/mK2 at room temperature isreported for n-type films of 1 lm thickness, which is in line with the bestvalues reported in recent literature for similar structures.
U2 - 10.1007/s11664-017-5977-8
DO - 10.1007/s11664-017-5977-8
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Journal of Electronic Materials
T2 - Journal of Electronic Materials
JF - Journal of Electronic Materials
SN - 0361-5235
ER -