Power Factor of Germanium Antimony Tellurium Thin Film on Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Ceramic Substrate Deposited by Pulsed–DC<i></i> Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Germanium–Antimony–Telluride (Ge–Sb–Te) has low electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity for good thermoelectric properties. The Ge–Sb–Te thin films were deposited on Al2O3 ceramic substrate by pulsed–dc magnetron sputtering system using a 99.99 % Ge:Sb:Te of 1:1:1 composite target and annealed at 573, 623, 673, and 723 K for 1 hour in vacuum. The phase identification, atomic composition, morphology and film thickness (d), carrier concentration (n), mobility (µ), Seebeck coefficient (S) and electrical resistivity (ρ) of the as–deposited and the annealed samples were investigated by X–ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X–ray spectroscopy (EDX), field–emission scanning electron microscopy (FE–SEM), Hall–effect measurement, steady state method and calculation of from n and µ, respectively. The results demonstrated that the as–deposited Ge–Sb–Te film showed amorphous phase and annealing changed the phase crystalline. Morphologies of annealed Ge–Sb–Te films showed very large grain size and porosity to obtaining good n and µ. The approximately maximum power factor (P) was 4.22×10−4 W m−1 K−2 at annealing temperature of 723 K.