Enhanced thermoelectric performance via quantum confinement in a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor for thermal management

Abstract

The performance of thermoelectric devices is gauged by the dimensionless figure of merit {{{{{boldsymbol{ZT}}}}}}. Improving {{{{{boldsymbol{ZT}}}}}} has proven to be a formidable challenge given the interdependence of its constitutive quantities, namely Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and temperature. Here, we use quantum confinement to decouple Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity to demonstrate an order of magnitude quantum-based enhancement to the thermoelectric figure of merit {{{{{boldsymbol{ZT}}}}}} in complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. While most quantum-based enhancement is done through physical confinement using two-dimensional materials, our approach uses electrical confinement. Because of this, our device is more robust than the two-dimensional materials currently used. We further articulate that improvement by as much as a factor of 50 could be achieved in a practical setting. Our approach further provides a path for monolithic integration of on-chip coolers and energy scavengers with virtually no deviation from the fabrication flow of standard electronics.