A thermal-induced electric current from a gold electrode/porous silicon device

Cheng-Yin Huang,Vincent K S Hsiao,Chin-Kai Chang,Kai-Shin Wen

doi:10.1039/c7ra05474b

Abstract

We demonstrate the electric current measured from a device composed of electrochemically etched silicon, porous silicon (PS) and gold (Au) electrodes of different device designs by applying a thermal potential between two Au electrodes.

Highlights

Nanostructured silicon (n-Si) with cost-effective properties, which can be integrated into CMOS processing, has been considered as the ultimate thermoelectric material.[1,2,3] Several studies have theoretically or experimentally demonstrated the enhanced thermoelectric power of n-Si from the evaluation of the Seebeck coefficient S (S 1⁄4 DV/DT, where DV and DT are the potential and temperature gradient between the electrode from the thermoelectric device, respectively) and gures of merit ZT (ZT 1⁄4 sS2T/k, where s and k are the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material, respectively and T is the absolute temperature) due to the decrease of k from n-Si when compared to bulk Si
We demonstrate the electric current measured from a device composed of electrochemically etched silicon, porous silicon (PS) and gold (Au) electrodes of different device designs by applying a thermal potential between two Au electrodes
Since the Peltier effect is described as a heating or cooling effect, which can be induced by applying currents between two electrodes connected with a thermoelectric material only under a closed circuit condition, we demonstrated a reversed Peltier effect or unconventional Seebeck effect where the generated electric current at the Au/PS junction was proportional to the heat absorbed from the device

Summary

Introduction

Nanostructured silicon (n-Si) with cost-effective properties, which can be integrated into CMOS processing, has been considered as the ultimate thermoelectric material.[1,2,3] Several studies have theoretically or experimentally demonstrated the enhanced thermoelectric power of n-Si from the evaluation of the Seebeck coefficient S (S 1⁄4 DV/DT, where DV and DT are the potential and temperature gradient between the electrode from the thermoelectric device, respectively) and gures of merit ZT (ref. 4–20) (ZT 1⁄4 sS2T/k, where s and k are the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material, respectively and T is the absolute temperature) due to the decrease of k from n-Si when compared to bulk Si. We demonstrate the electric current measured from a device composed of electrochemically etched silicon, porous silicon (PS) and gold (Au) electrodes of different device designs by applying a thermal potential between two Au electrodes.

Results

Conclusion