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Highly enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit of a β-SiC nanowire with a nanoelectromechanical measurement approach

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Abstract

We developed a reliable and highly reproducible way of fabricating a one-stop measurement platform for characterizing the thermoelectric properties of individual nanowires (NWs) using a focused ion beam and a nanomanipulator. 3-ω and 1-ω signals obtained by the four-point-probe method were used in measuring the thermal and electrical conductivities of the NW. Subsequently, the Seebeck coefficient was measured by using additional nanoelectrodes including a nanoheater. The thermal conductivity of the single β-SiC NW was obtained at 86.5±3.5 W/mK. The Seebeck coefficient was obtained to be −1.21 mV/K by using the same measurement platform. Thus, the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT=σS 2 T/k, was measured to be ∼0.12. This value is around 120 times higher than the reported maximum value of bulk β-SiC.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by NSF CMMI-0841265.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 76203, USA

    Kyung-Min Lee

  2. Department of Semiconductor Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University, Chonbuk, Chonju, 561-756, Korea

    Sang-Kwon Lee

  3. Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, 76203, USA

    Tae-Youl Choi

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  1. Kyung-Min Lee
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  2. Sang-Kwon Lee
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  3. Tae-Youl Choi
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Correspondence to Tae-Youl Choi.

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Lee, KM., Lee, SK. & Choi, TY. Highly enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit of a β-SiC nanowire with a nanoelectromechanical measurement approach. Appl. Phys. A 106, 955–960 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-011-6718-0

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