A Field Effect Heat Flow Switching Device

Abstract

A heat flow switching device was developed using semiconductors characterized by very small lattice thermal conductivity. We selected Ag2Ch (Ch = S, Se) which possesses semiconducting electron transport properties and very small lattice thermal conductivity, and tried to control their electron thermal conductivity using bias voltage. The samples were prepared by means of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis under vacuum atmosphere, and mechanically rolled into ribbons of 10 µm in thickness. For making the capacitor-type device, amorphous Si and Mo were deposited on the rolled films using RF-sputtering. We compared thermal conductivity with and without bias voltage by means of the AC heating method. As a result, we succeeded in observing a 10% increase of heat flow in the capacitor type heat flow switching device. This Paper was Originally Published in Japanese in J. Thermoelec. Soc. Jpn. 16 (2019) 73–76.