Publication Date:
2018-02-21
Description:
Author(s): Nguyen T. Hung, Ahmad R. T. Nugraha, and Riichiro Saito Thermoelectric performance is expressed by the figure of merit Z T . However, as the electrical conductivity σ in the numerator of the formula Z T = S 2 σ T / κ is related to the thermal conductivity κ in the denominator, we still do not have a good guiding principle for obtaining a high Z T . The authors propose that Z T is set by a universal function of a dimensionless parameter α , which can be experimentally measured. The function reproduces most experimental results for most materials, whether they are one-, two-, or three-dimensional. From this we conclude that any semiconductor with α 〉 4 . 5 will show Z T 〉 2 , which could dramatically improve technology. [Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 024019] Published Tue Feb 20, 2018
Electronic ISSN:
2331-7019
Topics:
Physics
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