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Electrical Resistance and Seebeck Coefficient in PbTe Nanowires

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We address a physics-based simplified analytical formulation of the diffusive electrical resistance (R Ω) and Seebeck coefficient (S) in a PbTe nanowire dominated by acoustic phonon scattering under the presence of a low static longitudinal electric field. The use of a second-order nonparabolic electron energy band structure involving a geometry-dependent band gap has been selected in principle to demonstrate that the electron mean free path (MFP) in such a system can reach as low as about 8 nm at room temperature for a 10-nm-wide PbTe nanowire. This is followed by the formulation of the carrier back-scattering coefficient for determination of R Ω and S as functions of wire dimensions, temperature, and the field, respectively. The present analytical formulation agrees well with the available experimental data and may find extensive use in determination of various electrothermal transport phenomena in PbTe-based one-dimensional electron devices.

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Acknowledgement

This work was financially supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India under Grant No. SR/FTP/ETA-37/08 and SR/ITS/00427/2010–2011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscale Device Research Laboratory, Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, (formerly CEDT), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Sitangshu Bhattacharya

  2. Thermoelectric Materials and Device Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Ramesh Chandra Mallik

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  1. Sitangshu Bhattacharya
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  2. Ramesh Chandra Mallik
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Correspondence to Ramesh Chandra Mallik.

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Bhattacharya, S., Mallik, R.C. Electrical Resistance and Seebeck Coefficient in PbTe Nanowires. J. Electron. Mater. 41, 1421–1428 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-1930-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-1930-z

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