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Nano Research 2022, 15(3): 2382-2390 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3743-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 26 August 2021

Nanostructure and thermal power of highly-textured and single-crystal-like Bi2Te3 thin films

Show Author's Information Heng Zhang( ),  Jamo Momand,  Joshua Levinsky,  Qikai Guo,  Xiaotian Zhu,  Gert H ten Brink,  Graeme R. Blake,  George Palasantzas,  Bart J. Kooi( )
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
Keywords:
thermoelectric properties, pulsed laser deposition, Bi2Te3 films , highly-textured structure, single-crystal-like structure
Topics:
High resolution electron microscopy
Cite this article:
Zhang H, Momand J, Levinsky J, et al. Nanostructure and thermal power of highly-textured and single-crystal-like Bi2Te3 thin films. Nano Research, 2022, 15(3): 2382-2390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3743-y
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Abstract Full text About this article

Bi2Te3-based alloys are known to have outstanding thermoelectric properties. Although structure–property relations have been studied, still, detailed analysis of the atomic and nano-scale structure of Bi2Te3 thin film in relation to their thermoelectric properties remains poorly explored. Herein, highly-textured (HT) and single-crystal-like (SCL) Bi2Te3 films have been grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on Si wafer covered with (native or thermal) SiOx and mica substrates. All films are highly textured with c-axis out-of-plane, but the in-plane orientation is random for the films grown on oxide and single-crystal-like for the ones grown on mica. The power factor of the film on thermal oxide is about four times higher (56.8 μW·cm−1·K−2) than that of the film on mica (12.8 μW·cm−1·K−2), which is comparable to the one of the polycrystalline ingot at room temperature (RT). Reduced electron scattering in the textured thin films results in high electrical conductivity, where the SCL film shows the highest conductivity. However, its Seebeck coefficient shows a low value. The measured properties are correlated with the atomic structure details unveiled by scanning transmission electron microscopy. For instance, the high concentration of stacking defects observed in the HT film is considered responsible for the increase of Seebeck coefficient compared to the SCL film. This study demonstrates the influence of nanoscale structural effects on thermoelectric properties, which sheds light on tailoring thermoelectric thin films towards high performance.


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Nanostructure and thermal power of highly-textured and single-crystal-like Bi2Te3 thin films

Show Author's information Heng Zhang( ), Jamo Momand, Joshua Levinsky, Qikai Guo, Xiaotian Zhu, Gert H ten Brink, Graeme R. Blake, George Palasantzas, Bart J. Kooi( )
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract

Bi2Te3-based alloys are known to have outstanding thermoelectric properties. Although structure–property relations have been studied, still, detailed analysis of the atomic and nano-scale structure of Bi2Te3 thin film in relation to their thermoelectric properties remains poorly explored. Herein, highly-textured (HT) and single-crystal-like (SCL) Bi2Te3 films have been grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on Si wafer covered with (native or thermal) SiOx and mica substrates. All films are highly textured with c-axis out-of-plane, but the in-plane orientation is random for the films grown on oxide and single-crystal-like for the ones grown on mica. The power factor of the film on thermal oxide is about four times higher (56.8 μW·cm−1·K−2) than that of the film on mica (12.8 μW·cm−1·K−2), which is comparable to the one of the polycrystalline ingot at room temperature (RT). Reduced electron scattering in the textured thin films results in high electrical conductivity, where the SCL film shows the highest conductivity. However, its Seebeck coefficient shows a low value. The measured properties are correlated with the atomic structure details unveiled by scanning transmission electron microscopy. For instance, the high concentration of stacking defects observed in the HT film is considered responsible for the increase of Seebeck coefficient compared to the SCL film. This study demonstrates the influence of nanoscale structural effects on thermoelectric properties, which sheds light on tailoring thermoelectric thin films towards high performance.

Keywords: thermoelectric properties, pulsed laser deposition, Bi2Te3 films , highly-textured structure, single-crystal-like structure

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 23 March 2021
Revised: 07 July 2021
Accepted: 15 July 2021
Published: 26 August 2021
Issue date: March 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We thank Hans de Vries for assisting in the operation of the pulsed laser deposition system. We are grateful to Prof. Beatriz Noheda for offering use of her lab facilities, in particular the setup for the van der Pauw measurements. We would also like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council, in particular for Heng Zhang’s scholarship (No. 201706890019).

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