journal article·2018-01Open access

Engineering Temperature‐Dependent Carrier Concentration in Bulk Composite Materials via Temperature‐Dependent Fermi Level Offset

Si Hui, Wenpei Gao, Xu Lu, Anurag Panda, Trevor P. Bailey, Alexander A. Page, Stephen R. Forrest, Donald T. Morelli, Xiaoqing Pan, Kevin P. Pipe, Ctirad Uher

Advanced Energy Materials· Volume 8· Issue 3

Abstract

Abstract Precise control of carrier concentration in both bulk and thin‐film materials is crucial for many solid‐state devices, including photovoltaic cells, superconductors, and high mobility transistors. For applications that span a wide temperature range (thermoelectric power generation being a prime example) the optimal carrier concentration varies as a function of temperature. This work presents a modified modulation doping method to engineer the temperature dependence of the carrier concentration by incorporating a nanosize secondary phase that controls the temperature‐dependent doping in the bulk matrix. This study demonstrates this technique by de‐doping the heavily defect‐doped degenerate semiconductor GeTe, thereby enhancing its average power factor by 100% at low temperatures, with no deterioration at high temperatures. This can be a general method to improve the average thermoelectric performance of many other materials.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices · Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides · Quantum Dots Synthesis And Properties

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Physics University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science University of California Irvine CA 92697 USA

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 USA

Department of Materials Science and Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Department of Physics University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Department of Physics Department of Materials Science and Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of Physics and Astronomy Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 USA

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California Irvine CA 92697 USA

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Funding

U.S. Department of Energy · National Science Foundation · U.S. Army

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