Ultrahigh resolution characterizing nanoscale Seebeck coefficient via the heated, conductive AFM probe

Abstract

An ultrahigh resolution probe technique for charactering nanoscale Seebeck coefficient was developed based on a modified conductive AFM probe with local heating function. The heated AFM conductive tip realizes nanoscale thermal contact between the AFM tip and the thermoelectric samples and successfully excites nanoscale thermoelectric signal. Excellent agreement was found between nanoscale Seebeck coefficient values and their corresponding macroscopy measurements in thermoelectric bulk and thin films. Such AFM-based thermoelectric probe technique provides a very convenient and promising tool for measuring nanoscale thermoelectric parameters with ultrahigh resolution up to 15 nm.