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Ultrahigh resolution characterizing nanoscale Seebeck coefficient via the heated, conductive AFM probe

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Abstract

An ultrahigh resolution probe technique for charactering nanoscale Seebeck coefficient was developed based on a modified conductive AFM probe with local heating function. The heated AFM conductive tip realizes nanoscale thermal contact between the AFM tip and the thermoelectric samples and successfully excites nanoscale thermoelectric signal. Excellent agreement was found between nanoscale Seebeck coefficient values and their corresponding macroscopy measurements in thermoelectric bulk and thin films. Such AFM-based thermoelectric probe technique provides a very convenient and promising tool for measuring nanoscale thermoelectric parameters with ultrahigh resolution up to 15 nm.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos. 2012CB933004 and 2015CB654605, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51121064 and the Nanotechnology Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee under Grant No. 11nm0502800.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Inorganic Functional Materials and Devices, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    K. Q. Xu, H. R. Zeng, H. Z. Yu, K. Y. Zhao & G. R. Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    K. Q. Xu & H. Z. Yu

  3. State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    J. Q. Song, X. Shi & L. D. Chen

Authors
  1. K. Q. Xu
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  2. H. R. Zeng
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  3. H. Z. Yu
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  4. K. Y. Zhao
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  5. G. R. Li
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  7. X. Shi
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  8. L. D. Chen
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Correspondence to H. R. Zeng.

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Xu, K.Q., Zeng, H.R., Yu, H.Z. et al. Ultrahigh resolution characterizing nanoscale Seebeck coefficient via the heated, conductive AFM probe. Appl. Phys. A 118, 57–61 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8891-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8891-4

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