Mitigating the Effect of Nanoscale Porosity on Thermoelectric Power Factor of Si

Abstract

The addition of porosity to thermoelectric materials can significantly increase the figure of merit, ZT, by reducing the thermal conductivity. Unfortunately, porosity is also detrimental to the thermoelectric power factor in the numerator of the figure of merit ZT. In this manuscript we derive strategies to recoup electrical performance in nanoporous Si by fine tuning the carrier concentration and through judicious design of the pore size and shape so as to provide energy selective electron filtering. In this study, we considered phosphorus doped silicon containing discrete pores that are either spheres, cylinders, cubes, or triangular prisms. The effects from these pores are compared with those from extended pores with circular, square and triangular cross sectional shape, and infinite length perpendicular to the electrical current. A semiclassical Boltzmann transport equation is used to model Si thermoelectric power factor. This model reveals three key results: The largest enhancement in Seebeck coefficient occurs with cubic pores. The fractional improvement is about 15% at low carrier concentration ($< 10^{20}\ \mathrm{1/cm^3}$) up to 60% at high carrier population with characteristic length around $\sim 1\ \mathrm{nm}$. To obtain the best energy filtering effect at room temperature, nanoporous Si needs to be doped to higher carrier concentration than is optimal for bulk Si. Finally, in $n$-type Si thermoelectrics the electron filtering effect that can be generated with nanoscale porosity is significantly lower than the ideal filtering effect; nevertheless, the enhancement in the Seebeck coefficient that can be obtained is large enough to offset the reduction in electrical conductivity caused by porosity.