Quantum and classical size effects on thermoelectric transport in Si/Ge superlattices

Abstract

Quantum size effect thermoelectric enhancement has been intensively investigated. However, the electronic transport along the in-plane direction is also affected by interface scattering that can be attributed to classical size effect. It has been observed that interface scattering sometimes greatly degrade low-dimensional thermoelectric enhancement. To have a complete understanding of the transport with both quantum and classical size effect, we conduct experimental investigation of in-plane thermoelectric properties on Si/Ge superlattices and theoretical characterization of those properties with electron Boltzmann transport model. In this paper, we will report the experimental result and comparison with the modeling.