Complete Characterization of Thermoelectric Materials by a Combined van der Pauw Approach and the Effect of Radiation Losses

Abstract

AbstractWe have recently presented a novel method for a complete thermoelectric characterization [J. de Boor, V. Schmidt. Adv. Mater. 22:4303, (2010)]. This method is based on the well-known electrical van der Pauw method and allows measurement of the electrical and thermal conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient and the thermoelectric figure of merit. After a short review of this method we will discuss the systematic measurement errors of the method. It turns out that radiative heat loss can affect the thermal conductivity measurement significantly. We will give a simple estimation for the relative error due to radiation losses and discuss error minimizing strategies.