Electric and Thermal Transport Calculations through Interface and Applications to Thermoelectric Energy Conversion

Abstract

We present the electrical and thermal transport calculations through interface of metallic aluminum and semiconductor silicon materials. The obtained transport results are utilized to find the thermoelectric properties of Seebeck coefficient and figure of merits. We find that the increase of Seebeck coefficients and also the decrease of thermal transport due to the scatterings of electrons and phonons at the nanometer-size interface enhances the efficiency of thermoelectric energy conversion around the Fermi energy. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2014.115]