A fundamental study of thermoelectric power generation by use of amorphous thin film on the heat transfer basis.

Abstract

This report a new method of thermoelectric power generation by use of the large temperature difference due to the fin effect and the amorphous semiconductor thin film. Instead of utilizing the small temperature drop in a thermoelectric device as adopted in a conventional device, the method makes use of the fin effect which causes a large temperature difference in a thin metallic plate cooled at one end and exposed to a high heat flux or a hot gas flow. The large temperature difference is available for the thermoelectric film. The amorphous film is deposited on the plate by an ion-cluster method and has a thin electric insulating film between the plate. Temperature distributions in the plate are theoretically and experimentally investigated and thermoelectric power generation performances are experimentally studied.