Enhanced spin-dependent thermopower in a double-quantum-dot sandwiched between two-dimensional electron gases

We study the spin-dependent thermopower in a double-quantum-dot(DQD) embedded between the left and right two-dimensional electron gases(2DEGs) in doped quantum wells under an in-plane magnetic field. When the separation between the DQD is smaller than the Fermi wavelength in the 2DEGs, the asymmetry in the dots' energy levels leads to pronounced quantum interference effects characterized by the Dicke line-shape of the conductance, which are sensitive to the properties of the 2DEGs. The magnitude of the thermopower, which denotes the generated voltage in response to an infinitesimal temperature difference between the two 2DEGs under vanishing charge current, will be obviously enhanced by the Dicke effect. The application of the in-plane magnetic field results in the polarization of the spin-up and spin-down conductances and thermopowers, and enables an efficient spin-filter device in addition to a tunable pure spin thermopower in the absence of its charge counterpart.

Thermopower in parallel double quantum dots with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

Based on the Green＇s function technique and the equation of motion approach, this paper theoretically studies the thermoelectric effect in parallel coupled double quantum dots （DQDs）, in which Rashba spin-orbit interaction is taken into account. Rashba spin^rbit interaction contributions, even in a magnetic field, are exhibited obviously in the double quantum dots system for the thermoelectric effect. The periodic oscillation of thermopower can be controlled by tunning the Rashba spin^rbit interaction induced phase. The interesting spin-dependent thermoelectric effects will arise which has important influence on thermoelectric properties of the studied system.

Effects of Nonparabolicity on Electron Thermopower of Size-Quantized Semiconductor Films

Effects of nonparabolicity of energy band on thermopower, in-plane effective mass and Fermi energy are inves- tigated in size-quantized semiconductor films in a strong while non-quantized magnetic field. We obtain the expressions of these quantities as functions of thickness, concentration and nonparabolicity parameter. The influence of nonparabolicity is studied for degenerate and non-degenerate electron gases, and it is shown that nonparabolicity changes the character of thickness and the concentration dependence of thermopower, in-plane effective mass and Fermi energy. Moreover, the magnitudes of these quantities significantly increase with respect to the nonparabolicity parameter in the case of strong nonparabolicity in nano-films. The concentration depen- dence is also studied, and it is shown that thermopower increases when the concentration decreases. These results are in agreement with the experimental data.

Anionic entanglement-induced giant thermopower in ionic thermoelectric material Gelatin-CF_(3)SO_(3)K–CH_(3)SO_(3)K

Ionic thermoelectric(i-TE)technologies can power Internet of Things(IoT)sensors by harvesting thermal energy from the environment because of their large thermopowers.Present research focuses mostly on using the interactions between ions and matrices to enhance i-TE performance,but i-TE materials can benefit from utilizing different methods to control ion transport.Here,we introduced a new strategy that employs an ion entanglement effect.A giant thermopower of 28 mV K^(-1)was obtained in a quasi-solid-state i-TE Gelatin-CF_(3)SO_(3)K–CH_(3)SO_(3)K gel via entanglement between CF_(3)SO_(3)^(-)and CH_(3)SO_(3)^(-)anions.The anionic entanglement effect involves complex interactions between these two anions,slowing anionic thermodiffusion and thus suppressing bipolar effects and boosting p-type thermopower.A Au@Cu|Gelatin-CF_(3)SO_(3)K–CH_(3)SO_(3)K|Au@Cu i-TE device with a generator mode delivers a specific output energy density of 67.2 mJ m^(-2)K^(-2)during 2 h of discharging.Long-term operation.

Intermolecular coupling enhanced thermopower in single-molecule diketopyrrolopyrrole junctions

Sorting out organic molecules with high thermopower is essential for understanding molecular thermoelectrics.The intermolecular coupling offers a unique chance to enhance the thermopower by tuning the bandgap structure of molecular devices,but the investigation of intermolecular coupling in bulk materials remains challenging.Herein,we investigated the thermopower of diketopyrrolopyrrole(DPP)cored single-molecule junctions with different coupling strengths by varying the packing density of the self-assembled monolayers(SAM)using a customized scanning tunneling microscope break junction(STM-BJ)technique.We found that the thermopower of DPP molecules could be enhanced up to one order of magnitude with increasing packing density,suggesting that the thermopower increases with larger neighboring intermolecular interactions.The combined density functional theory(DFT)calculations revealed that the closely-packed configuration brings stronger intermolecular coupling and then reduces the highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO)gap,leading to an enhanced thermopower.Our findings offer a new strategy for developing organic thermoelectric devices with high thermopower.

Quantum interference enhanced thermopower in single-molecule thiophene junctions

Quantum interference(QI)effects,which offer unique opportunities to widely manipulate the charge transport properties in the molecular junctions,will have the potential for achieving high thermopower.Here we developed a scanning tunneling microscope break junction technique to investigate the thermopower through single-molecule thiophene junctions.We observed that the thermopower of 2,4-TPSAc with destructive quantum interference(DQI)was nearly twice of 2,5-TP-SAc without DQI,while the conductance of the 2,4-TP-SAc was two orders of magnitude lower than that of 2,5-TP-SAc.Furthermore,we found the thermopower was almost the same by altering the anchoring group or thiophene core in the control experiments,suggesting that the QI effect is responsible for the increase of thermopower.The density functional theory(DFT)calculations are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data.Our results reveal that QI effects can provide a promising platform to enhance the thermopower of molecular junctions.

Ion–Electron Coupling Enables Ionic Thermoelectric Material with New Operation Mode and High Energy Density

Ionic thermoelectrics(i-TE) possesses great potential in powering distributed electronics because it can generate thermopower up to tens of millivolts per Kelvin. However,as ions cannot enter external circuit, the utilization of i-TE is currently based on capacitive charge/discharge, which results in discontinuous working mode and low energy density. Here,we introduce an ion–electron thermoelectric synergistic(IETS)effect by utilizing an ion–electron conductor. Electrons/holes can drift under the electric field generated by thermodiffusion of ions, thus converting the ionic current into electrical current that can pass through the external circuit. Due to the IETS effect, i-TE is able to operate continuously for over 3000 min.Moreover, our i-TE exhibits a thermopower of 32.7 mV K^(-1) and an energy density of 553.9 J m^(-2), which is more than 6.9 times of the highest reported value. Consequently, direct powering of electronics is achieved with i-TE. This work provides a novel strategy for the design of high-performance i-TE materials.

Thermal Rectification Effect of an Interacting Quantum Dot

We investigate the nonlinear thermal transport properties of a single interacting quantum dot with two energy levels tunnel-coupled to two electrodes using nonequilibrium Green function method and Hartree-Fock decoupling approximation. In the case of asymmetric tunnel-couplings to two electrodes, for example, when the upper level of the quantum dot is open for transport, whereas the lower level is blocked, our calculations predict a strong asymmetry for the heat （energy） current, which shows that the quantum dot system may act as a thermal rectifier in this specific situation.

Improvement of the thermoelectric efficiency of pyrene-based molecular junction with doping engineering

In this study, the thermoelectric properties of pyrene molecule doped with boron and nitrogen atom at different sites of molecule are investigated using density functional theory and none-equilibrium Greens function formalism in the linear response regime. Our calculations show that when the impurities are added to the edge of the molecule, the anti-resonant peaks will appear in the transmission diagram in the vicinity of the Fermi energy level. So it increases the thermoelectric figure of merit of the system in comparison with the one that the impurity is located in the center of molecule. Additionally, the seebeck coefficient signs are not the same among the B, N, and N ＆ B doped devices, indicating that the types of the carriers can be changed with different types of doping.

Thermodynamics Properties of Mesoscopic Quantum Nanowire Devices

We investigate the thermodynamics properties of mesoscopic quantum nanowire devices, such as the effect of electron-phonon relaxation time, Peltier coefficient, carrier concentration, frequency of this field, and channel width. The influence of time-varying fields on the transport through such device has been taken into consideration. This device is modelled as nanowires connecting to two reservoirs. The two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs- AlGaAs heterojunction has a Fermi wave length which is a hundred times larger than that in a metal. The results show the oscillatory behaviour of dependence of the thermo power on frequency of the induced field. These results agree with the existing experiments and may be important for electronic nanodevices.

Preparation and Properties of Indium Selenide （InSe） Thin Films for Selective Surface Applications

Indium selenide （InSe） thin films have been prepared by e-beam technique onto glass substrate at a pressure of-8 × 10^-5 Pa. The deposition rate of the InSe thin films is -8.30 nms^-1. InSe samples grown at room temperature have been termed as virgin, whereas the films at which the transition in electrical conductivity is shown to exhibit at a temperature of 415 to 455 K have been termed as phase-transited samples. X-ray diffraction （XRD） study reveals that lnSe thin films are amorphous in nature before phase-transition while they are polycrystalline after phase-transition. Scanning electron microscopy （SEM） has been used to study the surface morphology of InSe thin films. Before phase-transition grains are absent in the films and surfaces are almost smooth and uniform. Film surfaces are seen to exhibit a number of grains after phase-transition and they are rough in surfaces. The elemental composition of the lnSe thin films has been estimated by EDAX method. The effects of temperature on the electrical properties of InSe thin films have been studied in details. Temperature dependence of electrical conductivity shows a semiconducting behavior with activation energy. Thickness dependence of conductivity is well in conformity with the Fuchs-Sondheimer theory. Thermopower study indicates that the InSe film is an n-type semiconductor. The optical study of InSe thin films is carried out in the wavelength range 360 to 1100 nm at room temperature. The study of absorption coefficient of InSe thin films shows a direct type transition with a band gap of=1.65 eV which is well agreed with the reported values. Integrated values of luminous and solar transmittance as well as of reflectance have been calculated. Appreciable order of transmittance and reflectance suggest that this material is a potential candidate for the application in selective surface devices.

Electronic Transport in Alloys with Phase Separation (Composites)

A measure for the efficiency of a thermoelectric material is the figure of merit defined by ZT = S2T/ρκ, where S, ρ and κ are the electronic transport coefficients, Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity and thermal conductiviy, respectively. T is the absolute temperature. Large values for ZT have been realized in nanostructured materials such as superlattices, quantum dots, nanocomposites, and nanowires. In order to achieve further progress, (1) a fundamental understanding of the carrier transport in nanocomposites is necessary, and (2) effective experimental methods for designing, producing and measuring new material compositions with nanocomposite-structures are to be applied. During the last decades, a series of formulas has been derived for calculation of the electronic transport coefficients in composites and disordered alloys. Along the way, some puzzling phenomenons have been solved as why there are simple metals with positive thermopower? and what is the reason for the phenomenon of the “Giant Hall effect”? and what is the reason for the fact that amorphous composites can exist at all? In the present review article, (1), formulas will be presented for calculation of σ = (1/ρ), κ, S, and R in composites. R, the Hall coefficient, provides additional informations about the type of the dominant electronic carriers and their densities. It will be shown that these formulas can also be applied successfully for calculation of S, ρ, κ and R in nanocomposites if certain conditions are taken into account. Regarding point (2) we shall show that the combinatorial development of materials can provide unfeasible results if applied noncritically.

Impact of coupling geometry on thermoelectric properties of oligophenyl-base transistor

Thermal and electron transport through organic molecules attached to three-dimensional gold electrodes in two different configurations, namely para and meta with thiol-terminated junctions is studied theoretically in the linear response regime using Green＇s function formalism. We used thiol-terminated（–SH bond） benzene units and found a positive thermopower because the highest occupied molecular orbital（HOMO） is near the Fermi energy level. We investigated the influence of molecular length and molecular junction geometry on the thermoelectric properties. Our results show that the thermoelectric properties are highly sensitive to the coupling geometry and the molecular length. In addition, we observed that the interference effects and increasing molecular length can increase the thermoelectric efficiency of device in a specific configuration.

Effect of Glass Composition on the Thermal Expansion of Relict Crystals of RuO₂in Doped Lead-Silicate Glasses (Thick Film Resistors)

The thermal expansion coefficients (TEC) of RuO2 crystallits in thick film resistor (TFR) composites, consisting of RuO2 dispersed in lead-silicate glass of various compositions, were evaluated from X-ray diffraction patterns at temperatures 298;773;973 and 1123 K corresponding to characteristic temperatures of resistivity and thermopower anomalies of the TFRs. It has been found that TEC of free RuO2 powder along a-axis has an anomaly at T > 973 K (expansion is replaced by constriction), whereas constriction along c-axes remains for all temperatures. This anomaly disappears in doped glass of simplest composition (2SiO2.PbO) but occurs in glasses of some complex compositions. Symmetry of unit cell of RuO2 is not changed in the temperature range investigated.

Thermoelectric Properties of p-Type PbSe Nanowires

The thermoelectric properties of individual solution-phase synthesized p-type PbSe nanowires have been examined.The nanowires showed near degenerately doped charge carrier concentrations.Compared to the bulk,the PbSe nanowires exhibited a similar Seebeck coefficient and a significant reduction in thermal conductivity in the temperature range 20 K to 300 K.Thermal annealing of the PbSe nanowires allowed their thermoelectric properties to be controllably tuned by increasing their carrier concentration or hole mobility.After optimal annealing,single PbSe nanowires exhibited a thermoelectric figure of merit(ZT)of 0.12 at room temperature.

A new design concept for a thermoelectric generator with multiscale,multiphase,multifunctional composites

A new module design concept that integrates materials engineering with thermoelectric module optimization is proposed.This concept transforms the gaps between thermoelements and couples into internal space/pores within the elements to eliminate heat loss and thus to enhance module performance.The effect of the internal pore structure on module performance was studied using two effective medium models.The modeling results demonstrated that the power generation of the proposed module design increased by~8%and the efficiency increased>20%compared to those of the traditional module design.The effect of the inclusion of the second solid phase in the composite on module performance was also studied using nine different high-efficiency thermoelectric materials as the inclusions.The modeling results showed that further increase in module performance up to~50%that of the traditional module design can be achieved.