Abstract
Thermoelectric micro-coolers based on bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) are important in many practical applications thanks to their compactness and fluid-free circulation. In this paper, we studied thermoelectric properties of bismuth/antimony telluride (Bi/SbTe) thin films prepared by the thermal co-evaporation method, which yielded among the best thermoelectric quality. Different co-evaporation conditions such as deposition flux ratio of materials and substrate temperature during deposition were investigated to optimize the thermoelectric figure␣of merit of these materials. Micron-size refrigerators were designed and fabricated using standard lithography and etching technique. A three-layer structure was introduced, including a p-type layer, an n-type layer and an aluminum layer. Next to the main cooler, a pair of smaller Bi/SbTe junctions was used as a thermocouple to directly measure electron temperature of the main device. Etching properties of the thermoelectric materials were investigated and optimized to support the fabrication process of the micro-refrigerator. We discuss our results and address possible applications.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support from the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development through Grant Number 103.02-2015.79. Samples were fabricated and measured at the Nano and Energy Center and Faculty of Physics, VNU University of Science. We would like to thank Mr. Nguyen Minh Hieu, Nano and Energy Center and Dr. Pham Van Thanh, Faculty of Physics for their support in the project.
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Dang, L.T., Dang, T.H., Nguyen, T.T.T. et al. Thermoelectric Micro-Refrigerator Based on Bismuth/Antimony Telluride. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 3660–3666 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5343-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5343-x