Temperature and Electron concentration dependent Thermoelectric Power in Wide Band Gap semiconductor GaN Nanowire

Abstract

Abstract: Nanostructures have a significant promise as potential building blocks for the next generation thermoelectric devices. While the thermal transport properties of bulk materials have been intensely studied, the understanding of nanostructure thermoelectric properties and their interrelation is still incomplete. In the calculated temperature range, the thermoelectric power (TEP) was found to be linearly dependent on temperature, suggesting the degenerate nature of the GaN semiconductor nanowire similar to that of ZnO semiconductor nanowire. Observed negative values of TEP indicating that, majority charge carriers are electrons in GaN semiconductor. Linear dependence of TEP with temperature shows that TEP is only due to electron diffusion and not due to phonon-drag effect. Also observed the calculated TEP values are in good agreement with the experimental results in the overall temperature range 10 – 300 K. Keywords: Semiconductor nanowire, GaN, Mott relation, Thermoelectric power, wide band gap semiconductor