2008/06/12 by Sergey V. Faleev, François Léonard · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Doping #Electron #Materials science #Optics #Optoelectronics #Phonon #Phonon scattering #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Seebeck coefficient #Semiconductor #Thermal conductivity #Thermal properties of materials #Thermoelectric effect #Thermoelectric materials #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.77.214304
published as Physical Review B 77, 214304 (2008)
openalex publication_date 2008/06/12 · arxiv created 2008/07/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Based on the concept of band bending at metal/semiconductor interfaces as an energy filter for electrons, we present a theory for the enhancement of the thermoelectric properties of semiconductor materials with metallic nanoinclusions. We show that the Seebeck coefficient can be significantly increased due to a strongly energy-dependent electronic scattering time. By including phonon scattering, we find that the enhancement of ZT due to electron scattering is important for high doping, while at low doping it is primarily due to a decrease in the phonon thermal conductivity.