The Fabrication and Thermoelectric Properties of Amorphous Si-Ge-Au Bulk Samples

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe amorphous Si-Ge-Au bulk samples were fabricated with using the melt spinning method for the practical power supply or cooling devices. X-ray diffraction results showed that our samples were amorphous and the thermoelectric properties were measured by DC method. Although the electrical resistivity of the bulk sample was higher than that of the amorphous thin film, the thermoelectric power of the bulk sample was larger. The thermal conductivity of the amorphous Si-Ge-Au bulk sample was almost the same to the conventional crystalline Si-Ge bulk value. Consequently, non-dimensional figure of merit ZT is around 2 (at 600 K, • •=6.5 10λ-1V/K, • =1.9 10 ohm-m, • •= 6 W/mK) that is about ten times higher than the conventional crystalline Si-Ge bulk value.